Burdens
by transmutejun
Summary: Set after Episode 46 of Gatchaman II. Joe has trouble dealing with the way his cybernetic nature isolates him from the rest of the team... especially Jun.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I reluctantly sat down on the sand, my hands on my knees. Why had I let the others convince me into coming here? Jun and Jinpei ran giggling down to the water, laughing like a pair of kids on vacation.

Next to me, Ryu pulled off his shirt, eager to join his friends in the surf.

"What's eating you, Joe?" he asked.

"I don't think I should have come." I shook my head. "The beach isn't really my thing. I should have stayed back with Ken."

"What do you mean, the beach isn't your thing?" Ryu asked. "I remember when you used to strut around the beach, trying to impress the girls with your Jim Morrison act. And you enjoyed the water too."

"Things are different, now." I said coldly, looking off into the distance.

"Yeah, yeah, I _know_." Ryu groaned. "But why does it have to be such a big deal? We're all fine with it. Why shouldn't you be?" The Owl looked genuinely puzzled at my distress.

I knew that he meant well. Ryu was a good-natured kind of guy, and he never let troubles get him down any longer than was necessary. It made him a strong member of the team, and of all of us, I think he was the most well adjusted.

But he just couldn't understand. How could he? There was no way he could comprehend the emotional agony that gripped its cold fingers around my heart every day.

I decided that I didn't want to get into this right now, and certainly not with Ryu. However well adjusted he was, he was terrible at keeping secrets, and I knew that anything I told him would be common knowledge within minutes.

"I think I'll just go back and help Ken." I said quietly, raising myself from the ground.

"If you want to go stick yourself with some boring, old reports, instead of grabbing a rare chance for fun, then you really _have_ changed, Joe." Ryu pointed out. "It's like you _want_ to distance yourself from us; like you _want_ to be miserable."

The big guy had a point. I _did_ want to distance myself. But did I want to make myself miserable? No… at least, I didn't think so. I just _was_ miserable. It was more of an undesired side effect to life, rather than something I had consciously chosen.

But Ryu's words had their desired effect. I sighed, and dropped heavily down to the ground, staring morosely out at the ocean.

As I looked out at the water, I saw Jun burst forth from underneath the waves, coming up behind Jinpei and splashing his back. He yelped, startled, then angrily turned, but she was gone. She had slipped away as quickly and unobtrusively as she had come. I gave a small smile, in spite of myself.

Seeing that I intended on staying, Ryu tossed me a towel to sit on, then ran off toward the water. Over the last couple of years, his bulk had become more muscle than fat, but I was still amazed how quickly he could run.

The Owl was anything _but_ subtle. He ran over to Jun, grabbed her around the waist, and spun her around. She laughed and squealed, her face full of life and excitement. I noticed a few of the guys on the beach watching him with a mixture of curiosity and envy, wondering if she could possibly be his girlfriend. I chuckled in mild amusement. If only they knew.

These days, Jun was most attached to Jinpei. I watched the two of them splashing each other in the surf, both of them attempting to convince Ryu to side with them in their water fight. It was a hopeless battle, and Jun knew it, but she still tried. Although she was attached to Jinpei, _he_ was becoming more and more attached to Ryu. Oh, he still needed her, but the closer he got to becoming a man, the less he needed a motherly influence. Sometimes, I could see, from the look in her eyes, that Jun knew this, and she tried hard to give him his space, despite how much it hurt.

Hey, letting go was part of life. At least Jinpei was still involved in her life, and always would be. I envied the bond they had, and wished that I could be included in it.

But that was impossible. I had to stay away from emotional ties. Hadn't that been proven to me, over and over again? Anyone I ever cared for had died, and soon, _I_ would be the one who was gone. I knew the pain that I had gone through in the past, and from what I understood, the pain I had put the others through had been worse than that.

They didn't deserve to go through it again.

And yet… there were times when I desperately wanted to reach out… to belong, the way I once had. Somehow, those days when I used to laugh, when I used to be filled with excitement, when I would do things for the sheer thrill of the experience… they seemed so far away. They had evaporated, as I pushed the only family I had ever known away.

Although, who knew how much time I had left? Should I really be sitting here on such a beautiful day, feeling sorry for myself? Why not enjoy what little I had? But I couldn't go swimming: I was too heavy now, and couldn't really float. It was an effort to keep my head above the water. I supposed I could go down and enjoy the lapping waves with the others, but their boisterous play was a little too much for my state of mind right now.

I closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths and trying to relax, meditating quietly as the ocean wind ruffled my hair. I had never really paid much attention to meditation before, but of late I had found that it helped me clear my head, and focus on tasks.

Right now, since I had no task to speak of, I merely concentrated on driving the cold depression from my mind. I felt the warm sun on my face, and opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was Jun.

She had apparently given up on her splash fight with Jinpei and Ryu, and she strode confidently up the beach, toward my position. I noticed the eyes of various men watching her as she passed, but she was oblivious to their attention. I could see why they stared. Her red bikini showed off her incredible figure, glistening drops of water sliding their way down her form, and splashing onto the sand in her wake. Her emerald eyes sparkled, and she radiated confidence and joie de vivre.

"What are you still doing up here?" she asked me, reaching for another towel. "Why don't you go into the water?"

She slowly ran the towel over her body, oblivious to the way my eyes followed her every move. The sight of her made me realize that while I was no longer entirely human, my body still retained the same responses as any other man.

In a way, just knowing that helped me relax, and I unconsciously grinned at her.

"Why would I go in the water, when _you're_ up here on the sand?" I asked.

"I've been in the water for half an hour." Jun pointed out, seeing through my attempt at avoiding the true answer to her question. "You've been up here the entire time."

"I… just don't feel like swimming." I replied.

Jun sighed and sat down next to me, spreading her long legs out to finish drying in the sun.

"You know, Joe," she began, obviously choosing her words carefully, "sometimes I'm not sure you feel like doing _anything_ anymore."

I decided not to answer her, looking away instead, as if I were incredibly interested in a game of beach volleyball off to my left.

"Why don't you ever go racing at the track anymore, Joe?" she asked, talking to the back of my head. "I'm not even sure what you do in your spare time. I see you training, and occasionally you come by the Snack, but most of the time you're just off by yourself."

I felt her slim hand cover mine, and the warmth of her breath brushed by my ear.

"Haven't you spent enough time on your own, Joe?" she whispered. "We're here for you, and we're not going anywhere. If you can't be with _us_, then whom can you be with?"

She had a point. If I couldn't be with my own friends… my family… then there wasn't really anyone else. And yet, they were also the hardest people to be close to, knowing how they had once been hurt, and how they were likely to be hurt again.

I turned to answer her, and found that I couldn't. Those big green eyes of hers were looking into mine, and for a few seconds, I felt that she could see right into the heart of me… or at least, what was left of my heart. My mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.

She smiled at me, and for an instant, I let myself bask in the warmth of her presence.

"You don't have to say anything, Joe." she said quietly. "Whatever you're trying to sort out, I get that you need to do it on your own. Just don't isolate yourself completely, okay?"

I nodded briefly, too taken aback by the sudden effect she was having on me, to realize what I was doing.

Her smile widened, drawing me in, as if we shared a secret that no one else in the world could understand. I leaned forward, slowly, so that our foreheads were touching.

"Juni…" I breathed, "I… just…"

It was at that moment that I found my face full of sand.

I turned, sputtering, my eyes snapping with rage, to find Jinpei and Ryu looking at me sheepishly.

"Sorry, Joe!" Jinpei apologized. "We were just fooling around. I didn't mean to throw the sand at _you_."

"You have lousy aim, Jinpei!" Jun muttered, trying unsuccessfully to brush the sand out of her wet hair.

"Sorry, Onechan." Jinpei grinned. "You sure do look funny, though…"

That was all he got out before Jun leapt up, racing after him across the beach. She appeared angry at first, but it wasn't long before they were both laughing, and enjoying the thrill of the chase.

"Those two…" Ryu smiled, shaking his head. "They act like they're related, or something…"

"They're as close as a real family." I replied.

"We're _all_ a family, Joe." Ryu responded, looking straight at me.

I had to turn away. I couldn't afford a family.

Not anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I felt the light spray of water on my face, as the motorboat bounced across the water. Jun was almost as much of a speed demon as I used to be, and a gentle pace would never satisfy her. Instead, she had taken the boat out into an open area, so that she could run it to its limits, without fear of meeting up with other watercraft. Jinpei and Ryu whooped with every bounce, enjoying the inevitable thump back down onto the water, and the resulting splashes.

I _knew_ I shouldn't have come along on this excursion. It was just too boisterous and rowdy for me to enjoy myself. I sighed, resigning myself to enduring my teammates' good cheer for the next hour at least.

Jun glanced back, and saw me sitting in the corner, then gave Jinpei the wheel. He wasn't as adept at maneuvering the boat as she was, but he had Ryu to help him.

"What crawled up your ass and died?" she asked pointedly, flopping down beside me.

I would have smiled at her joke, but her flippant comment was uncomfortably close to the truth. I _did_ have something foreign in my body, and death was my constant companion.

When I didn't reply, she pulled out the big guns.

"I can't believe what a stick-in-the-mud you are!" She poked my shoulder with her slim finger. "You're even worse than Ken! At least _he_ knows how to have fun once in awhile."

That did it. I wasn't about to be told I was worse than Ken at _anything_.

"I know how to have fun." I grumbled, "But my idea of fun doesn't include being bounced around in this sorry excuse for a boat."

"Oh, really?" Jun asked slyly, "I suppose you think _you_ could do better?"

"Damn straight." I muttered, knowing that I was falling right into her trap, the moment the words had left my lips.

"Then, why don't you show us?" she grinned, pulling at my arm. Damn, she was strong! I supposed I shouldn't be surprised, given what she did for a living.

Shaking my head at her persistence, I allowed myself to be dragged to the front of the boat, where Jinpei promptly relinquished the wheel to me, after a stern look from Jun.

Standing there, feeling the vibration of the wheel in my hands, I suddenly felt alive again. Sure, this wasn't a car, but it brought back memories of racing. And here, there was no track, no forced route. I could go anywhere I wanted to.

I eased up slightly on the speed and adjusted our course relative to the waves, sending us flying in a straight, smooth path across the water.

"Alright, Joe!" Jinpei cheered, thrilled with the ride.

Swiftly, I turned the craft to the right, causing my three passengers to go flying across the boat, where they landed on top of each other in an undignified heap. I laughed out loud at the comical picture they presented.

"You'd better buckle your seatbelts!" I warned them, still smiling.

"Yes, Sir!" Jun grinned, giving me a mock salute as she sat down next to me and strapped in. I could see Jinpei and Ryu doing the same out of the corner of my eye.

For the next thirty minutes I kept them on their toes, alternatively going straight, doing sharp turns, and even moving in tight spirals. From time to time, Jinpei and Ryu whooped appreciatively, but it was Jun who held most of my attention. She sat with her eyes closed, the wind whipping through her hair and molding her t-shirt to the curves of her body.

The look on her face was serene, as if she were finding ultimate peace and relaxation in my breakneck pace.

She was a woman after my own heart.

But then, I didn't have much of a heart anymore. And the remaining piece was nestled next to the instrument of my death.

I forced the morbid thought aside, turning to Jun.

"Do you want to take a turn, now?" I asked her.

"You'll have to show me how you keep it going so smoothly." she replied.

"It's all about control." I smirked. I reached my hand out to her, and she took it, getting up and coming to stand next to me. I placed her hands on the wheel, covering them with my own.

I demonstrated how to maneuver the craft, moving around behind her, so that we could both stand in front of the wheel. Jun picked it up pretty quickly, and soon she was controlling the boat all by herself.

And yet, I still rested my hands lightly on hers.

She nestled close against me, her back meeting my front in an exquisite form of torture. At that moment, there was no question that a significant part of me was still a man. Jun laughed, the happy sound carrying on the wind, spreading out across the water, as if to fill the entire world with her joy.

Slowly, I let the sensations she was evoking in me wash through my body. I felt _alive_, for the first time in… well, I didn't want to think about how long it had been. Every nerve was tingling with the excitement… the thrill… of the moment.

I never wanted it to end.

"Hey, Jun!" Ryu called out, "Isn't it getting about time for lunch?"

I was both infuriated and relieved by the interruption. What had I been thinking? How could I have let my guard down like that?

All I was doing was adding to the pain we would both feel when I finally fulfilled my destiny.

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Jun spread out the blanket on the sand, doing her best to smooth it out, without getting too much sand on it. She had chosen a secluded cove for our picnic; one that was only accessible by boat. As a result, we had the area to ourselves.

I finished helping Ryu pull the boat up onto the beach, then shaded my eyes with my hand as I admired the magnificent view. The waters were a clear blue-green, and not too far away I could see pristine islands that had been set aside as bird sanctuaries by the local government. It was a postcard-perfect picture, not to mention something I could appreciate without feeling like I was hurting someone else in the process.

Involuntarily, my eyes flicked toward Jun, who had opened up a large cooler.

"Who wants lunch?" she called out. Jinpei came scampering over from where he had been digging in the sand, and Ryu took off as fast as his legs could carry him. I chuckled slightly to myself. Ryu never changed.

Slowly I walked up to the others, and as I arrived, Jun tossed me a sandwich. Her aim was perfect, even though she had her head buried in the cooler.

"Let's see…" she mumbled to herself, "Colas for Ryu and Jinpei…" she handed soda cans to the Owl and the Swallow, again knowing exactly where they were without looking at them, "Water for me… and…" she pulled a green bottle out of the cooler and sent it in my direction.

I looked down. It was a bottle of my favorite beer.

"I thought you might like that." she winked at me.

"Thanks." I smiled at her. I would never have thought of it, but it was exactly what I wanted, at that moment. It was amazing how Jun knew me better than I knew myself.

"Hey, Joe…" Ryu eyed his can, and my bottle. "Want to trade?"

I sent him a look that clearly gave my answer, then for added emphasis twisted off the cap and threw back my head for a long, cool swallow.

Ryu looked disappointed for a moment, then returned his attention to his own lunch. His happy-go-lucky demeanor had returned in a few seconds.

I sat down on the blanket and sighed to myself. If only it could be that simple for me. Sometimes I envied the Owl, with his innate ability to push aside all of the misery and grim realities of his life.

I sat with the others, but was not really part of their group. I listened to them chatter amongst themselves about inconsequential things, understanding that this was part of the outing: a way for them to temporarily escape the constant war we were involved in.

If only it were that easy for me. They could leave the war behind, at least for a short time. But I was a part of the war: its ultimate end physically buried inside my body. I could never forget that, when the cold reminder was present in my every physical feeling and movement.

"Do you want to come with us, Joe?" Jun offered, bringing my attention back to the here and now.

"Huh?" I replied, uncertain of what she was asking.

"Ryu and I are going for a walk along the water." Jun repeated patiently. "Do you want to come along with us?"

"No." I shook my head. The flash of disappointment in her eyes cut me to the quick, but that in itself told me that I had done the right thing. "You two, go on ahead."

"Fine." she said quickly, jumping up from the blanket and brushing the sand from her legs. "Let's go, Ryu."

The Owl stood quickly, and a few moments later they were laughing and splashing as they walked along the edge of the surf.

They were doing just fine without me. I had made the right choice.

If only the right choice didn't have to be so damn lonely.

Although, I wasn't completely alone. Not too far away, Jinpei was digging in the sand with his hands.

"What are you doing, Kid?" I asked him, "Aren't you a little old to build sandcastles?"

"I'm not building sandcastles!" Jinpei huffed, "I'm looking for turtle eggs!"

"Turtle eggs?" I was curious, despite myself. Jinpei had discovered an interest in marine life a couple of years ago, and ever since then had become a font of information about sea creatures.

"Yeah." Jinpei grinned. "This is the time of year the sea turtles lay their eggs. They lay big bunches of them all together, buried in the sand. I was hoping to find some, just to look at."

"Big bunches, huh?" I asked, "How many is that?"

"About a hundred." Jinpei shrugged. "Maybe more, maybe less."

A hundred. I almost envied those turtles, starting out with one hundred brothers and sisters, all just like them. They never had to worry about being on their own.

"Of course, not all of them survive." Jinpei continued, oblivious to my train of thought. "Some of them just don't hatch, and others are eaten by predators as they crawl toward the water."

That sounded familiar. It reminded me of Galactor, preying on the weak and innocent to fuel their insatiable desire to conquer this planet.

"But enough of them make it to the water to continue the species." Jinpei added. "And that's the whole point, isn't it?"

I supposed he was right.

"Hey, I found some!" Jinpei whispered excitedly.

Despite myself, I crawled over to where the Swallow was kneeling, his hands on the ground in front of him staring in amazement at the cache of white eggs.

They weren't actually all that interesting. They kind of looked like the eggs I saw in the supermarket. But Jinpei gazed at them as if they were the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.

"Can you believe that some people actually eat these?" he asked in disgust.

Actually, I could. Heck, I ate eggs that looked just like these a couple of times a week. But I sensed this wasn't the right answer to the question.

"No." I replied solemnly, my face betraying me with a small smile.

"Get away from here!" Jinpei cried suddenly, waving his arms. I looked up to see a grey-white seagull staring at us.

"These aren't for you!" Jinpei shouted, shaking his fist at the bird. "Go away!"

Maybe it was a trick of the light, but as the bird turned its head, I thought I saw a glimmer of something.

"Did you see that?" I whispered to Jinpei.

"See what?" he asked, confused.

And then, I saw it again. This time I knew what it was.

That wasn't a seagull. The glimmer was the shine of something metallic in the sun.

"Mecha…" I hissed.

This was dangerous. The only organization I knew of that could build something like that was…

"Galactor!" gasped Jinpei.

"We need to get out of here… _now_." I muttered. "Pretend you haven't noticed anything unusual."

Quickly, I helped the nervous Swallow re-bury the eggs in the sand.

"Go get Jun and Ryu." I ordered him quietly. "Don't run, or make anything seem out of the ordinary. Just make sure you all get back to the boat as soon as possible."

As Jinpei moved away, I rapidly tossed the remains of our picnic back into the cooler. I didn't really care about the items, but it might have raised some red flags if we had left them behind. It was pretty obvious that we were under some kind of surveillance.

I surreptitiously kept an eye on the bird, while simultaneously scanning the sky for more. I didn't see anything, but who knew what else could be out there.

The bird turned its head, looking back toward the way Jinpei had gone. It was obvious that it was about to take flight.

My hands moved so fast, they were practically a blur. I pulled a feather shuriken out of my pocket, and threw it at the mecha, piercing its throat. The device fell onto the ground, sparks flying. I nonchalantly tossed the picnic blanket over the fake bird, hurriedly wrapping it up.

I casually put the bundle under my arm, taking the cooler in my other hand, and moving back toward the boat. I reached it about the same time as the others.

"What's this about a mecha?" Jun hissed at me.

I moved my head slightly to indicate the bunched up blanket under my arm.

"Can you tell if it has a locator in it?" I asked her.

Surreptitiously, Jun activated her bracelet, scanning the bundle.

"I don't think so." she shook her head.

"Then let's take it back to Hakase and Dr. Pandora for analysis." I suggested.

Jun nodded in agreement, and we quickly departed the beach with our illicit cargo.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"This is a fascinating piece of technology you have brought to us, Joe." Dr. Pandora said, as she examined the seagull mecha.

"I didn't really want to allow it to go back to Galactor." I shrugged. "And I wanted to know what it was doing on that beach."

"It looks similar to the Black Raven mechas." Jun pointed out.

"Yes, I have been referencing the data we have on the Black Raven design." Pandora replied. "Although we never had an actual sample of those mechas to analyze. There are some obvious similarities, and yet, quite a few differences."

"What kind of differences?" asked Jinpei.

"Well, the Black Raven mecha were primarily offensive," the doctor explained, "and they were designed to combine into a larger mecha. This bird appears to have no offensive capabilities. It also has no locator or transmitter inside."

"So… what was it doing, then?" Ryu asked. "If it isn't offensive, does it even belong to Galactor?"

"Oh, it's Galactor's, all right." Pandora confirmed. "It's a reconnaissance mecha. It is designed to record what it observes, then physically fly back to its base and download that information."

"What did it observe?" Jun asked anxiously, just as I said, "Where is its base?"

Pandora smiled helplessly, encompassing the both of us with her reply.

"Unfortunately, both its instructions and the data it recorded appear to have been destroyed." the Doctor answered. "Somehow, Joe's shuriken appears to have de-magnetized its data. It would appear that the mecha was designed that way; to prevent the data from falling into the wrong hands."

That made sense. Damnit, Galactor was getting more logical in its mecha design and programming. I felt like we were always running to catch up to them.

This war needed to end… soon, before we were completely overwhelmed.

"That's an interesting observation, Dr. Pandora." Dr. Nambu replied, walking into the room with Ken. "I apologize for our late arrival. I had other business to attend to."

"I understand, Dr. Nambu." Pandora replied. "We all know that you've had your hands full since the passing of Director Anderson."

"What were you doing, that you were being observed by Galactor mecha?" Ken asked suspiciously.

"It was just _one_ mecha, Ken." Jun snapped defensively. "And we certainly weren't out looking for it. It found _us_, when we stopped for a picnic."

"You shouldn't have been out at all." Ken muttered. "It's safer to stay at G-Town, or here at ISO Headquarters."

"Leave her alone, Ken." I interrupted, "She deserves to have some fun once in awhile. So do Jinpei and Ryu. Just because _you_ want to sit back here and bury yourself in paperwork doesn't mean that they should too!"

Ken glared at me, and I scowled back. We had had a number of issues with each other since I had returned, but I knew it was more than that. Ken was frustrated over recent events with Galactor. Only a few days ago he had been forced to reveal his identity to Gel Sadra, in order to save Director Anderson's grandson, Sam, from Galactor's clutches. In my opinion, he could have gone about the entire matter differently, but I had literally bashed some sense into him once this week, and I didn't think he was ready to have me do it again, especially over something that was over and done with already.

At the same time, I understood his frustration. Galactor had known my face for a couple of years now. While it hadn't mattered much while I was with Dr. Rafael, since my return to the Science Ninja Team I had found myself unconsciously seeking excuses not to go out in public. My racing career had unfortunately been a casualty of this lost privacy.

But there was no reason for Jun, Jinpei and Ryu to suffer under these same restrictions. Ken and I had been careless enough to expose our identities, but the others could still enjoy a modicum of freedom. And of all people, I knew how precious those moments of freedom could be.

"That is neither here, nor there." said Nambu quietly, holding up his hand to cease our argument. "What is important is that Galactor felt it necessary to survey this area. They will become suspicious when this mecha does not return."

"Jun," he said, turning to the Swan, "I presume you remember where this spot is located, and could go back there?"

"Yes." Jun nodded.

"Then I suggest you all assemble on the new God Phoenix, and search for Galactor activity in the surrounding area." Nambu replied.

"Roger!" we all shouted, before racing off to perform our duty.

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"This is the beach." Jun said, informing Ken that we had reached the starting point for our search.

"Did you see where the seagull mecha came from?" asked Ken.

"No." Jinpei replied, "Joe and I didn't notice it until it was already on the beach in front of us."

"When I threw my feather shuriken at it," I offered, "it looked like it was about to take off in that direction." I pointed out toward the water. As everyone's gaze drifted the way my finger indicated, I suddenly realized where the mecha had been headed.

"The Bird Sanctuary…" I whispered.

"That makes sense." Jun nodded. "A seagull wouldn't be out of place there, and would be protected from anyone who tried to chase it."

"Damn, Galactor!" Ken muttered, "It would be just like them, to destroy an animal haven for their own selfish purposes."

"Let's go destroy _their_ haven!" Jinpei growled. Nothing got Jinpei angrier than hurting animals.

"I'm with you, Jinpei!" Ryu chimed in. We all turned to Ken for confirmation.

"Let's pass over the island, Ryu." Ken ordered. "Jun, Jinpei, scan for any signs of Galactor activity."

It didn't take them long to find it. Visually, nothing could be seen through the canopy of trees that covered most of the island, but since Jun and Jinpei knew what to look for, it was only a few moments before they had located something unusual.

"There are some unusual frequencies being broadcast in this area." Jun reported. "It could be some kind of cloaking signal, or even communication transmissions."

Ken looked at Jun's analysis.

"Where are they coming from?" he asked.

"I've managed to triangulate the signals to these co-ordinates." Jun pointed at her monitor.

"That's almost the center of the island." Ken mused. "Okay, Team. We're going to disembark, and attempt to infiltrate this operation. Ryu, activate Pimer."

"Roger!" Ryu replied, as the rest of us prepared to leave the Bridge.

The moment we were on the ground, we spread out to search for anything unusual. I kept my eyes open, knowing that Galactor was likely to have surveillance equipment. In fact, they probably already knew we were there.

That suspicion was confirmed, when I noticed a hissing snake in a tree next to me. Its eyes glowed a strange red color, just as a silvery flash came out of nowhere, severing the snake's head from its body. Sparks and wires erupted from the still-wriggling mecha. even as Ken's Bird Saucer returned to his hand.

"Thanks." I said, nodding to him. "It would appear that Galactor knows we're here."

"Hopefully they haven't had much time to prepare a welcoming party." Ken added. "I'm wondering if we might be able to catch Gel Sadra with her pants down."

"Now _there's_ a disturbing image…" I replied.

A soft chime came from our bracelets.

"This is G3. I've found what appears to be an entrance hatch in the ground. I'm approximately two hundred meters north of where we separated…"

Jun was interrupted by the sound of gunfire, and the transmission abruptly ended.

I looked at Ken, seeing the concern etched on his face. I knew that it was mirrored on my own. Jun could handle herself, but who knew what she had encountered?

We both took off, sprinting as fast as we could toward her reported location. However my cybernetics enhanced my speed, and I arrived a full thirty seconds before the Eagle. I could see the obvious signs of a skirmish: broken vegetation, fallen branches, scorched tree trunks, and a pile of blackened and battered goons. It was obvious that Jun had been able to use her sonic gun to devastating effect.

In the center of the recently cleared vegetation was a circular hole in the ground. Without hesitation, I jumped through it, my sonic gun in one hand, two feather shuriken in the other.

I flew down approximately forty meters to the floor of a metallic room, only to find Jun engaged with about thirty Galactor goons. I smiled to myself. The Swan certainly looked like she had things well in hand, as she threw out her Ribbon, lashing four soldiers from behind while simultaneously catching them all in the line of fire of her sonic gun.

Of course, I wasn't about to let her have _all_ the fun. Casually, I tossed my two shuriken at the nearest goons, dropping them easily, while simultaneously leaping into the fray, to deal a high roundhouse kick to the back of another's head.

Jun whirled, delivering fatal hand strikes to another two goons, as I used my sonic gun to fell another three. We continued to fight, and my blood rushed through my body. I could hear it pounding in my ears, as the adrenaline pumping through my veins urged me onward. I ended up back to back with the Swan, thrilling both in the fight, and her close proximity.

_This_ was what I lived for: the fight with Galactor, tearing them apart; one goon at a time, if I had to. And to be sharing this with Jun only enhanced the pleasure I felt.

I saw Ken, Jinpei and Ryu landing on the floor off to my right, just as we finished off the last green-suited soldier. I was about to turn and acknowledge them, when a Galactor Captain wearing a large feather headdress appeared, backed by another squadron of goons. His eyes lit on Ken, and his face took on the crazed look I had come to associate with low-level Galactor Commanders.

"You may have found our base, Gatchaman!" he screamed, "But you will pay for it with your life!" He raised his hand, and displayed the live grenade he held there.

Almost as if time were moving in slow motion, I saw the Captain lift his arm, arcing it to throw his explosive directly at the Eagle.

Jinpei and Ryu were still standing next to Ken. At the same moment the Captain moved to launch his weapon, Jinpei threw his Rebound Ball at his attacker's head.

The Swallow's reflexes were significantly faster than the Captain's. The Ball hit the Galactor minion's head, causing his arm to move slightly just as the grenade left his hand.

It was now headed straight for Jun.

The entire series of events had taken only two seconds, but I saw them as clearly as if they had been spread out over several minutes.

I reacted without hesitation, instinctively moving even before my mind had fully processed the results of Jinpei's action.

Not long ago, Jun had used her body as a shield against Galactor gunfire, attempting to protect me. She had not known of my cybernetic enhancements, and that my body could likely have resisted such an assault. We had both been wounded, but she had been in Birdstyle, and I had not. Instinctively, she had thrown herself over me, nearly dying in the process, trying to protect me with her last breath of life.

I could do no less for her.

I launched myself at Jun, wrapping my body, and my wings, around her, so that she was completely protected from the blast that met my back.

For once, I was grateful for the secondary cybernetic enhancements that Dr. Rafael had coerced me into accepting. I used the heat and force from the explosion to fuel my own body's energy, leaping as high as I could, carrying Jun in my arms.

I looked at her face for the briefest of moments, seeing a look of wonder and gratitude shining forth from her emerald eyes as we flew through the air.

A feeling of warmth rushed through my body that had nothing whatsoever to do with the explosion.

We flew up nearly the entire forty meters, to the ceiling hatch through which I had originally entered the base, and I used one hand to grab at a ladder embedded in the wall below it; the other arm still tightly holding my precious Swan.

As I looked down, even from this distance, I could see the shock and disbelief on everyone's faces. They had not realized what my enhanced body could do.

Hell, until just then, _I_ hadn't even realized that I was capable of such a thing.

"Onechan!" I heard Jinpei cry.

"She's fine!" I shouted. "Go on!"

Jinpei and Ryu hesitated slightly, but Ken had already taken off after the now fleeing Captain. After a moment, they followed their Commander.

I looked down at Jun, grasping her tightly in my arm.

"_Are_ you okay?" I asked her.

"Yes." she smiled slowly. "Joe… you were faster than lightning! It almost seemed like Superman was flying away with me!'

"You make me feel like Superman." I breathed.

What the hell was I doing? How could I have said something so stupid? Immediately, I slammed a lid on my feelings, locking my emotions behind a solid door.

But it was too late. I could tell, from the look on her face, that Jun had seen behind my carefully manufactured façade.

Without warning, I let go of the ladder, and glided down to the floor again. The moment we had landed, I carefully set Jun on the ground, reluctantly releasing her from my arms.

I only hoped that she could forget my brief moment of weakness.

But then, a small part of me also hoped that she _wouldn't_ forget.

"Let's see what we can do about destroying this place." I said, trying desperately to change the subject, away from the images flashing through my mind.

"I don't think you need me for that." Jun said admiringly. "You're pretty good at demolishing Galactor bases all by yourself."

Damn, that girl knew how to deliver a compliment! The wall holding in my emotions buckled, but held.

"It's not quite that simple." I smiled, "We can't just blow this thing to pieces, because it would destroy the Bird Sanctuary above us."

"True." Jun chewed on her glove as she thought over the problem.

"Hmmmm…. we must be below sea level, all the way down here." she mused. "Suppose we blew a small hole in the bottom of the base: enough to let in the ocean? The salt water would corrode the computers and equipment, and the base would be flooded: completely unusable."

"That's a great idea." I replied, "I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

Jun grinned at me flirtatiously.

"There are _other_ reasons to keep me around." she said.

Damn! This was getting into dangerous territory again.

"Let's explore this place, and find the best location to blow that hole into the ocean." I suggested, turning to exit.

"Joe!" she gasped, horrified.

"What?" I asked, confused. "What's wrong?"

"Your back…" she whispered, pointing at me.

I turned, catching my distorted image in a reflective wall panel.

There was a hole in the exact center of my wings, its charred edges exposing the blackened remnants of my uniform beneath. Blood oozed out of cracks in my burned skin.

Strange… I didn't feel anything at all. But it was clear that the blast of the grenade had injured me. When I _thought_ about it, I could sense that something was wrong, but it was easy to ignore.

However, the look on Jun's face told me that _she_ didn't find it so easy to ignore.

"It doesn't hurt." I told her truthfully. "I'll get some medical attention once we're done here."

Jun nodded resolutely, but her face was pale and drawn.

Together, we left to explore the rest of the base.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I leaned back against the wall of Dr. Nambu's office, crossing my arms and surveying the scene in front of me. Jun, Jinpei, and Ryu sat on the couch, while Ken sat on another chair.

Night had fallen while I had been in the Medical Bay, and so the room was softly illuminated by a few strategically placed lamps. Even so, through the windows I could still see the dark shapes of marine life swimming around the G-Town base.

Hakase and Dr. Pandora entered the office.

"I've read the brief log you entered from the New God Phoenix, on your return trip home." Nambu began, "But I have a couple of questions."

"Of course." Ken nodded.

"What do you think the purpose of the base was?" Hakase asked.

"It's hard to say." Ken replied, his brow furrowing as he spoke. "It was very small: only a dozen or so rooms, and there were fewer than one hundred men inside."

"Do you think that it was still under construction?" Ryu asked. "Maybe, it wasn't finished yet?"

"But there was no sign of construction." Jun put in. "It looked complete to me. Complete… but empty… except for that room of seagull mechas."

"Maybe it was some kind of storage facility!" Jinpei suggested. "Only… they weren't storing anything at the moment…"

"I think it was a reconnaissance post." I said quietly. Everyone turned around to look at me.

"Jun downloaded some interesting data files, before we filled the base with water." I continued, as if I didn't notice their attention focused completely on me. "I suspect they were using the seagull mechas to survey the surrounding area. The real question is, _what_ were they looking for?"

"I think you're right, Joe." Dr. Pandora said. Everyone turned to look at her.

"I analyzed those data files Jun recovered." Pandora explained. "They appear to be comprised of camera footage from the seagull mechas."

"What were they looking at?" asked Ken intently.

"That's the strange thing." Pandora answered, "I'm not entirely sure. While a few of the clips show the mechas investigating tourists in the area, similar to what happened with Joe and Jinpei, the majority of the footage is of the horizon. The seagulls appeared to be scanning the entire area. It's as if they were looking for something that was _approaching_, as opposed to something that was already there."

"What could Galactor be waiting for?" Ryu asked.

"That's what I'd like you to find out." Dr. Nambu said. "In the morning, I want you to return and search the area. We need to know what was so important, that Galactor built an entire base, just to look for it."

"At first light, Doctor." Ken nodded, as Nambu and Pandora left the room.

Everyone stood up, stretching slightly.

"Man, I'm hungry!" Ryu moaned. "In all of the excitement, I missed dinner!"

"Well, since we're obviously staying on Base tonight, let's go grab something at the cafeteria." Jinpei suggested.

"Sounds good!" Ryu grinned, and the two left the room.

"What about you, Joe?" Jun asked, walking up to me. I was still leaning against the wall, my face a mask of indifference.

"What about me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Do you want to join me in the cafeteria, for a late dinner?" she smiled invitingly.

"No." I replied curtly. "I'm not hungry."

"Oh." I could see the disappointment on her face. I wished that I could have accepted her honest offer, but I knew it was better to maintain some distance between Jun and myself. The events of today had brought that home to me, loud and clear.

"I guess, I'll just catch up with Ryu and Jinpei, then." she said quietly, before rushing out of the office.

"Stay away from her."

"What?" I turned to see a scowling Ken glaring at me from the other side of the room.

"You heard me." he said. "Stay away from her."

"What do you think I'm doing, Ken?" I asked him pointedly. "I just told her I wasn't interested."

"But that's not the truth, is it?" Ken asked, frowning.

"It doesn't matter what the truth is." I replied calmly. "I don't intend on getting close to Jun."

"See that you don't." he ordered.

"I would never hurt Jun." I stated. "I would think that what happened this afternoon would prove that."

"There is more than one kind of hurt." Ken replied angrily.

"And you would know all about that, wouldn't you, Ken?" I spoke quietly, but I knew that my words had hit their mark, when the Eagle winced.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he lied.

I decided to call his bluff. Perhaps it wasn't the best move, but I was furious.

"Just because I wasn't here, doesn't mean I don't know what happened, Ken." I said. "I know how you treated Jun."

"Ryu." Ken muttered. "He needs to keep his big mouth shut."

"It doesn't matter how I know." I replied, although I chuckled inside. Ryu gossiped like an old woman. Shortly after I had returned, he had told me how Ken and Jun had been _together_ for a while, between the wars. But as soon as the Science Ninja Team had been re-activated, Ken had broken it off. Jun had been furious.

"What matters is that I would never hurt Jun." I repeated.

"Just leave her alone." Ken ordered.

That did it. Who the hell did he think he was, dictating my personal life to me like that?

"Look, Ken," I began, trying to keep my cool, "I know you've been going through some stuff of your own, especially with what happened when you rescued Sam."

"And what do _you_ know about that?" he growled at me.

"I know that you had to reveal yourself to Gel Sadra." I replied. "I know that it's eating you up inside, that Galactor now knows who you are. But most of all, I know _exactly_ how that feels."

"That's true." Ken said, deflated. "I had forgotten about that." The Eagle sighed, dropping his body onto the couch and running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"It's not something I can forget." I pointed out. "Spending days under Katse's 'care'… it changed me."

"In a lot of ways." Ken noted. I knew that we were no longer talking about out civilian identities.

"That's something else I can never forget." I replied, moving over to sit next to him on the couch.

"You're… different… now." Ken said, obviously trying to choose his words carefully. "You're a part of the team… and yet… you're _not_."

"I understand what you're trying to say, Ken." I sighed. "There are reasons for it."

"What kind of reasons?" he asked me.

I looked at him, and I saw that this was Ken, my best friend, asking the question. The Eagle was gone, leaving only the man I had known almost my entire life.

Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to talk to him about my personal issues.

"I really can't tell you." I said, turning my face away.

"Can't… or _won't_?" Ken questioned me. Surprisingly, there was no hint of anger in his words, merely concern.

"A little of both, I suppose." I admitted.

"You can talk to me, about anything, Joe." he said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I know that, Ken." I replied, turning and forcing a smile onto my face. "This is just something I have to deal with, on my own."

"It has to do with what Dr. Rafael did to you, doesn't it?" Ken asked.

"Yes." I said quietly. "As you say, I'm different, now. Not quite a man, not quite a machine."

"You know that we don't care about that." he replied quickly.

"I know," I told him, "but _I_ care. Things just aren't the same. I'm not one of you, anymore."

"You are one of us in every way that matters." Ken pointed out.

"You only say that, because you don't know…." I stopped myself before I said too much. This wasn't something that Ken needed to hear. He didn't need to know that he had a walking time bomb under his command.

"What don't I know?" Ken asked. "Tell me, Joe. Help me understand."

"You can't understand." I answered him. "Just know that I will follow my duty, Ken. Just like you."

"I can accept that, Joe." Ken smiled, holding out his hand to me.

I grasped it firmly,

"I appreciate that, Ken." My smile was genuine this time.

88888

The next morning, we were off at dawn in the New God Phoenix, heading toward the remnants of what, twenty-four hours before, had been a fully operational Galactor base.

As soon as we arrived, we began scanning the surrounding area, paying special attention to the horizons, and anything that could potentially approach our position.

After six hours, we were all tired and frustrated. The lack of results was disheartening. That, compounded with the fact that we had no idea what we were looking for, caused a fair bit of grumbling.

"Can't we go back to G-Town _yet_?" Jinpei complained. "There's obviously nothing here!"

"Yeah, I'm getting hungry!" Ryu added, "Maybe we could go back for lunch!"

"Just because we haven't found anything _yet_, doesn't mean that there's nothing to find." Ken replied firmly. "We'll keep looking."

But another two hours after that, even the Eagle seemed on the verge of giving up.

"Let's just take one more pass." Ken suggested. "And then…"

"Ken! I'm picking something up on the radar!" Jun interrupted him.

"What is it?" Ken asked, jumping out of his seat to rush over to her control station.

"I'm not sure." Jun replied. "Ryu, can you change the viewscreen to show these co-ordinates?" She sent the information over to the Owl.

The image at the front of the Bridge changed, and we were looking at the sky. Something was rushing through the atmosphere. From this distance, it looked like a ball of flame.

"You don't think it's a missile, do you?" Ryu asked, concerned.

"It doesn't look like any missile I've ever seen." I replied.

"Meteoroid?" Jinpei proposed.

"Possibly…" mused Ken, "But it just seems too co-incidental."

"I agree." I said. "We should investigate this, no matter what it is."

"I can track its likely landing site." Jun offered. "Based on its current trajectory…"

But her voice drifted off, even as we watched the celestial object on the viewscreen.

It had changed course.

A meteoroid would not change course. Even a missile was unlikely to do so. That implied that this was some kind of…

"Space ship?" Jun whispered.

"It would appear that whatever it is, there is some kind of guidance system aboard." Ken said grimly. "I suspect _this_ is what Galactor was waiting for."

The object was now fully visible in the sky. It appeared to be spherical in shape, but it continued to change direction every few seconds, as if defying us to track it. Less than a minute later, it had disappeared into the horizon.

"Ryu, head for the last known co-ordinates of the object, and its most likely landing site." Ken ordered. "We have to locate that thing… whatever it is."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Of course, by the time we arrived, there was no sign of the object. It had landed in a mountainous area, but there was no sign of it on our radar.

"We have to make sure that we find it, before Galactor does." Ken said. "Let's split up in our individual G-machines to search."

"Roger!" we shouted, running for our mechas. Within seconds, I was in the Condor Attacker, and shooting out toward the ground from below the wing of the New God Phoenix. I saw the Auto Swan being released on the other side of the ship, and heard the other mecha being launched from above.

On instinct, I turned the Attacker to the right, scanning the terrain as I drove. Why couldn't we pick up any sign of this thing? There should at least be some visual trail of its impact when it had hit the ground.

Unless it _hadn't_ hit the ground. Perhaps it had stopped itself, and landed quietly, in some hidden location.

I kept in contact with the others, enough to realize that they weren't finding any trace of the object either.

After about thirty minutes, I came across the Auto Swan. It was parked behind some boulders, and I thought I caught a glimpse of Jun in front of the rocks. Curious, I parked the Condor Attacker next to her motorcycle, and got out.

The moment I walked around the boulders, Jun noticed me.

"Get down!" she hissed. She was lying flat on her stomach, looking out over the edge of a large cliff.

Immediately, I fell to the ground, crawling up until I was lying next to her. What I saw made me gasp.

A gigantic rock was moving through the air, just below our position.

"What _is_ that?" I whispered.

"I'm pretty sure it's a Galactor mecha." Jun replied. "It's moving very slowly, and it looks like it's executing a search pattern."

"They don't know where it is, either!" I grinned.

"That would be _my_ guess." Jun grinned back. "But I think they know something we don't. They've been sticking pretty closely to this area, and I haven't seen any sign of other ships."

"Well, if they know something we don't, perhaps we should go find out what it is." I suggested.

"_Exactly_ what I was thinking." Jun winked at me.

I nodded at her, and when the mecha had moved close to our position, we raised ourselves to a crouching position, then jumped off of the cliff.

I felt the rush of air on my face, and reveled in the thrill of flying, even if it was only briefly. After a few seconds, we landed on the top of the mecha.

"Now, how do we get inside?" Jun asked.

At that moment, we saw a small portion of the rock face shift. It was clear that there was some kind of hatch at that point. As me moved closer, I knew what it was.

"Air vent." I smirked.

Carefully, we pried off the vent. It was just big enough for us to slip inside.

It didn't take long before we dropped to the floor in the middle of a metallic corridor. The sound of footsteps sent us scurrying for the shadows.

A Galactor Officer ran by, accompanied by a dozen goons.

"Hurry!" the Officer urged his men. "Gel Sadra requires our presence!"

I looked at Jun, who nodded gleefully at me. Surreptitiously, we followed the Officer and his men, until they came to a large doorway, behind which lay the control room for the mecha.

The control room appeared to be about four stories high, and Jun and I were easily able to hide ourselves toward the ceiling. Unless the goons below looked straight up, we wouldn't be spotted.

"Report, Manton!" Gel Sadra barked at the Officer. "What have you discovered?"

"Gatchaman is in the area!" Manton replied, saluting. "His Eagle Sharp has been spotted, about a kilometer from here. We suspect the rest of the Science Ninja Team are close by, as well."

"Have they seen us?" Gel Sadra demanded.

"No, not yet." the Officer assured her. "And we are confident that they are just bumbling around. They don't know what they are looking for."

"At least, he's got one part of it right." Jun smirked.

"Have you located the module, yet?" the Galactor Leader asked.

"We believe so." Manton said, handing a data chip over to Gel Sadra. "We have found a locator signal emanating from these co-ordinates. Of course, we haven't been able to find it, because of that blasted Gatchaman."

"Yes." sneered Gel Sadra, "How _co-incidental_ that the base that held the locator codes was destroyed, twenty-four hours before the module entered Earth's atmosphere. I suspect that we have a traitor in our ranks!"

"As you say, Mistress, it is too co-incidental!" the Officer agreed, as Gel Sadra passed the data chip to the mecha's navigator.

"Double the guards! We will find that module; with or without the locator codes!"

The Officer saluted sharply, and turned to leave the room.

"Oh, and Manton…" Gel Sadra cooed, causing the man to stop in his tracks and turn back to face her, "Do hurry with the search. Leader X is anxious to receive the device, and you know how he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

The Officer's face blanched, and he rushed out of the room, his goons at his heels.

"This is something for Leader X?" I hissed. "We had damn well better find that thing, before they do!"

"At least we know that they're somewhat blind too." Jun pointed out. "They'll have to search for it, like we are. But I certainly don't mind letting them show us the area where they picked up that signal!"

"So, I guess we should keep an eye on their search party." I smirked. "Just to make sure they're okay, of course."

"Oh, yes, definitely." Jun grinned at me.

88888

Jun and I crouched behind some storage containers, in what was apparently the troop staging area of the Galactor rock mecha. We had already contacted Ken, and informed him that we were enroute to the general location of the object.

"So, what are we looking for?" one of the goons asked Officer Manton.

"It's a space module." Manton explained patiently. It was clear that he was frustrated by the lack of intelligence his men were displaying. "It's about one meter in diameter."

"So, why are _we_ looking for this thing?" another goon interrupted. "Isn't our job to patrol this mecha?"

"We've been re-assigned." the Officer sighed.

"Why?" groaned the goon.

"Because, the battalion that was _supposed_ to do this was eliminated yesterday, along with their Base, by the Science Ninja Team." Manton said pointedly. He definitely got his audience's attention with the mention of the Science Ninja Team.

"Damn Gatchaman!" yelled one. "Always ruining everything for us. Why doesn't he just mind his own business?"

I had to roll my eyes at that one. Technically, Galactor _was_ our business. I saw Jun cover her mouth with her hand, to stifle a giggle.

"I just wish that stupid Science Ninja Team was here, right now!" cried another. "Why I'd…"

"You'd be dead!" interrupted yet another. "The only reason we're all alive is that we've never met up with them before. You'd better pray that you never encounter them!"

"Let's all just calm down." Manton said authoritatively. "The Science Ninja Team is in the area, but they don't know where we are. If we do our job quickly, and efficiently, they won't even know that were here."

"Want to bet?" Jun mouthed to me. I allowed myself a small smile.

"So… what are we doing, again?" the first goon asked.

Manton shook his head in disbelief, but to his credit, he went through the orders again.

"We have to locate the space module." the Officer repeated.

"And what does this thing look like?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"It's cloaked." Manton explained. "It's designed to take on the physical appearance of the surrounding area."

"So…. we can't see it, then?"

"Sort of." Manton sighed. "We were supposed to have locator codes that would have de-activated the cloaking device, and pinpointed the exact location of the module, but they were destroyed by…"

"Let me guess!" offered a goon, "They were destroyed by the Science Ninja Team!"

"That's right." the Officer replied condescendingly. His audience didn't appear to notice his tone. "So we'll have to move out in a line, covering the search area thoroughly."

"How big is this search area?"

"Ah, a good question." Manton smiled. "We know that the space module is within fifty meters of our landing point."

"Fifty square meters? That's not too bad!"

"Actually, it's nearly _eight thousand_ square meters." the Officer patiently explained. "It's a fifty meter _radius_. It's the best we can do. We'll just have to search quickly."

The men grumbled amongst themselves.

"So, what is this thing, anyhow?" asked a goon, after a bit.

"Well, the space module is just a transportation vehicle." Manton revealed. "It's the device inside that's important."

"And what does that device do?"

"I don't know." the Officer admitted. "But it was sent to Leader X by others of his kind. It's the only one in existence. It's supposed to help Galactor complete their conquest of Earth."

"That sounds important…" volunteered one of the goons.

"It _is_." repeated Manton. "This could be the difference between winning, and losing, against the Science Ninja Team."

"So… what does this thing look like, again?"

Officer Manton groaned loudly.

It was amazing that Galactor continued to operate at all, with the IQ of the average goon hovering somewhere around his shoe size.

After two more repeats of the basic information, the rock mecha finally arrived at the starting point for the search. The ship landed, and an exit ramp lowered to the ground. Officer Manton led his men outside, giving instructions on group formation for the search. We quickly reported our location to Ken, along with the additional information we had gathered.

As soon as the goons were out of sight, Jun and I slipped outside, ducking behind some rocks.

The moment we did so, my head began to ache, and it seemed to be more difficult to move my limbs. The feeling was familiar.

"Magnetic field…" I groaned, unable to hide the effort it took to speak. But Jun did not appear to notice in her excitement.

"Why would there be a magnetic field, here?" she said thoughtfully. "Unless…"

I could see the lightbulb going off in her head as she spoke.

"Joe!" she exclaimed, "Most cloaking devices are based on an electro-magnetic field! I'd bet that you're sensing the space module!"

So… this agony had a purpose, then?

"Joe…" Jun looked concerned, "How long can you deal with this?"

"As long as I have to." I grunted.

"Could you tell if the field were getting stronger, or weaker?" she asked.

I could see where she was heading with this. She wanted to use me like some kind of damn divining rod. It wasn't actually a bad idea.

Slowly, I nodded.

I took a few steps in the direction the goons had headed. I started to feel my head clear.

Sighing, I turned around, and walked in the opposite direction. It took much more effort. Carefully, I moved in a wide circle around Jun. When I reached a position directly west of her, my knees began to buckle.

"Joe!" she cried, running to my side.

If I had been capable of it, sweat would have been pouring down my face. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but I was grateful for the physical support Jun was providing for my body. She placed her shoulder underneath my arm, and literally held me up.

"I think… this is it…" I groaned.

The way I felt, this thing _had_ to be close. At least, I hoped it was. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could withstand.

About ten meters in front of us was a flat-topped boulder.

"Why don't you sit there, and I'll go on?" Jun suggested. "You've helped me with a direction."

But as I stumbled toward the spot, I fell to my knees, and then collapsed on the ground.

"Joe!" Jun cried, kneeling down next to me.

"Go on…" I moaned.

She hesitated for a second, and I thought I saw a tear roll down her cheek, but my vision was so blurry, I couldn't be sure. But then she stood up, and walked over to the boulder.

Carefully, she reached out to touch the rock.

Her hand went right through its surface.

She turned back to me, grinning.

"I'll get this thing turned off, Joe." she promised, "Just hold on."

There wasn't much else I could do, at that point, so I did what she had asked.

I saw her carefully reaching around, skimming over the boulder with her hands. After what seemed like an eternity, but was likely only a few minutes, she smiled.

"Got it!" she crowed, as the image of the boulder began to flicker.

Suddenly, the boulder was gone, and we were staring at a metallic sphere, roughly one meter in diameter.

Almost immediately, I began to feel better. I groaned, pulling myself up to a sitting position and activating my bracelet. Jun began fiddling with the module.

"This is G2." I reported, "We've found it. Send the New God Phoenix to our position, pronto!"

"We're on our way, G2!" Ken's voice came from my arm.

I terminated the communication, and initiated a locator signal from my bracelet.

"I told you, I thought I heard something coming from this direction!" we heard someone call.

Jun and I looked at each other. It had to be the Galactor search party.

I was still recovering from my close encounter with the cloaking field, but I nodded to the Swan.

"We can take them." I grinned.

"I had no doubts." she smiled back at me.

A spot of green appeared on a nearby rise, and then another. Within ten seconds, Officer Manton and his entire search party were gaping, open-mouthed, at us.

Slowly, I rose to a stand, taking on an offensive posture. I could see a couple of the goons begin to sweat. For added emphasis, I casually pulled out a feather shuriken, and began to chew on the tip.

"You won't get what you came for." Jun declared loudly.

"You don't even know what this is." Manton laughed. "What would _you_ do with it?"

"I'd prevent Galactor from getting their slimy hands on it!" Jun shouted.

Her hand flashed, and I saw her throw a number of mini-grenades at the module. For good measure, she pulled out her sonic gun and shot directly at the metallic sphere, even as she threw herself out of the way of the resulting blast.

"What the hell are you doing, Jun?" I asked her angrily, as she landed on the ground beside me.

"Trust me." she winked, patting her belt pouch as she scrambled to her feet.

Manton stared at the flaming remnants of the module in disbelief for a moment, then started shouting frantic orders at his men. Jun and I ran from the scene, but as we left I could see then frantically trying to put out the flames, as their Officer contacted Gel Sadra on some kind of communication device.

We rounded a rock wall, only to come face to face with the Galactor rock mecha.

Damn.

"I _knew_ we should have blown up that thing, before we left!" I yelled.

"So why didn't we?" cried Jun.

"Beats the hell out of me!"

We could see a section of the mecha opening up, to reveal some kind of laser pulse weapon. It charged, and emitted a number of sharp blasts, directly at our position.

I grabbed Jun, throwing our bodies to the ground, rolling over and over, away from the laser fire, until it was out of energy, and had to pause for a moment to re-charge.

We scrambled to our feet, and I ran as fast as I could, literally dragging Jun along by her arm. Since her sprinting speed was nowhere near mine, she was practically flying out behind my body as I sped across the rocky landscape.

The laser fire began again, and it seemed that it was right at our heels. I didn't look back, just continued to race away from the Galactor mecha.

Ahead of me, the land fell away, revealing a deep canyon below. Not having any other choice, I continued on my path, throwing myself, and the Swan, into the air and spreading my arms wide.

As we began our descent, a familiar red and white shape arose from below, passing us by. The Eagle Sharp rose to meet the rock mecha, taking full advantage of its dual Vulcan cannons, while expertly dodging the laser fire from the Galactor ship.

Jun and I landed on a rock outcropping on the canyon wall. As we were staring up at the battle in the sky above, I heard a hum behind us.

I turned to see the Swallow Helico approaching our position. As it drew closer, the Swan and I leapt off of the outcropping, each grabbing onto one of the Helico's wings. Jinpei flew us up and away from the battle, out of the canyon, and over to another cliff. I grinned to myself as I recognized the location.

"Thanks, Kid!" I called into my bracelet, before dropping off the wing and onto the Condor Attacker. Jun landed next to me, and immediately took off in her Auto Swan, flying after the rapidly departing Helico. Not to be outdone, I raced the Attacker across the cliffs, catapulting it through the air, when necessary, to bridge any gaps.

As we arrived, I could see that the rock mecha had already taken heavy damage from the attacks of the Eagle Sharp, and the Horned Tank, which was firing at it from behind. The Galactor vehicle appeared to be in trouble, and as the Swallow Helico and Auto Swan appeared in front of it, the unmistakable shape of Gel Sadra's escape pod shot off from behind the mecha, disappearing within seconds.

I arrived in time to get off one parting shot with my Vulcan cannon, before the rock mecha exploded in a brilliant display of fireworks.

"Science Ninja Team, regroup at the New God Phoenix!" Ken's orders issued forth from my wrist.

Another mission completed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The instant we were all safely back on the New God Phoenix, I stormed over to Jun.

"You had _better_ tell me that you've got the device!" I threatened her, "Or I'm going to…"

"What are you going to do, Joe?" Jun asked, in a sickly sweet voice.

My angry retort died on my lips, as the Swan extricated a small black box from her belt, and waved it slowly in front of my face.

"Is _this_ what's got you so excited, Mister Condor?" she purred.

"What is that, Jun?" Ken asked, physically placing himself between the two of us. "Is that what was in the space module?"

"Miss Swan here, got trigger happy, and decided to blast the space module to bits." I growled.

"Oh Joe, and here I thought that my being trigger happy was one of the things you loved about me." Jun flirted.

"That's enough, Jun." Ken gave the Swan a withering look, then turned around to face me. "Then what happened?" he asked.

"Well, I asked her what she was doing, and she implied that she had the device." I continued. "I didn't have time to confirm it then, because the rock mecha showed up and chased us off of the cliff."

"From what we overheard onboard the mecha, it was pretty clear that it wasn't the space module that was important." Jun sighed. "I was thinking that if Galactor thought the entire thing had been destroyed, then they wouldn't realize…" she paused, waving the black box under both of our noses again, "that I had taken this out."

"Are you _sure_ that's the device they were talking about?" I questioned her angrily.

"Pretty sure." she shrugged. "There wasn't anything else inside the module."

"So… what is this thing supposed to do, anyhow?" Ken asked.

"We don't know." I answered. "Even the Officer briefing the Galactor search party wasn't sure. All we know is that it was sent to Leader X by his people."

"Other beings from Selectro?" the Eagle asked, astonished.

"Apparently." I nodded. "And it's somehow supposed to help X control the Earth."

"If anyone can figure out what it does, Hakase can!" Jinpei piped up.

"And as long as it's not in X's hands, then it can't be used against us, right?" Jun offered.

"Does X even _have_ hands?" Ryu put in.

"You know what I mean, Ryu." Jun replied, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it's definitely worth taking back to Dr. Nambu." Ken stated. "Between him and Dr. Pandora, I'm sure the ISO will be able to figure it out."

When no one protested his statement, Ken walked back to his station, and sat down.

Jun smirked at me, then sat down at her station to examine the device. I leaned on her chair, bending over to see what she was doing.

"So, what do _you_ think it is?" I asked her.

"I thought you didn't appreciate _my_ opinion." she huffed.

I sighed heavily. I wasn't really ready to deal with Jun in a mood like this. I stood up, and turned to go.

"Wait, Joe." she said, placing a soft hand on my arm. I turned to look back at her.

"I'm sorry." Jun said. "This whole thing is stupid. We obviously work well together: this mission proved that. I'd appreciate your help in figuring this out."

"Sure." I smiled, accepting her apology. "I'm sorry for snapping at you." I said, offering one of my own.

"It's okay." she shrugged. "I probably should have just answered the question, without giving you all of the attitude."

"Usually, I like your attitude." I grinned. "Just not when I'm already irritated."

Jun flashed me a brilliant grin, making my knees turn to water. I covered it by quickly sitting down in the Swallow's chair, seeing as Jinpei was chatting with Ryu up at the front of the Bridge.

"So…" I repeated my earlier question, "What do you think it is?"

"I'm not entirely sure…" Jun mused, "But given what little we know about X, it seems that it would somehow relate to his mental powers. Perhaps this device is meant to expand, or enhance them somehow?"

"That's not a bad hypothesis." I replied, "Problem is, how do we go about proving or disproving it?"

"Well, I'll leave that one to Hakase and Dr. Pandora." Jun said. "I'd hate the be the guinea pig for those experiments!"

"What do you think that is?" I asked her, indicating a recessed panel on the device.

"I don't know…" As Jun spoke, the New God Phoenix jerked and bounced.

"Sorry guys, we just hit some unexpected turbulence." Ryu called out. "I think it's done, now…"

But as he spoke, the ship jolted again, pushing me out of my seat. Jinpei fell to the floor. Ryu, Ken and Jun, who were all wearing seatbelts, were just fine.

But the turbulence had knocked the device from Jun's hand. I saw it flying up in the air, and then abruptly change direction and begin falling to the ground. Quickly, I rolled across the Bridge, holding my hand out to catch the box, a fraction of a second before it would have impacted the floor.

As I caught the device, the recessed panel snapped open, emitting a beam of light, which caught me full in the face. For a brief moment, it almost seemed like that light was invading my brain, working its way through my neural pathways.

And then the panel snapped shut, and the light ceased.

"Are you okay, Joe?" Jun cried, jumping out of her seat.

"Yeah…" I muttered, rubbing my eyes with my free hand. "It was weird, but I'm fine."

Carefully, I raised myself to a standing position, handed the device to Jun, and made my way to my own station. Somehow, it seemed to take a little more effort than it should.

I closed my eyes, and leaned back in my chair. I was so tired. I just needed to rest.

I must have fallen asleep, because it seemed like only a few seconds later when I heard Ryu announce that we were approaching G-Town. As soon as we landed, the exit hatch opened, and everyone got up to disembark the New God Phoenix.

I stood up to follow them, only I didn't quite manage to stand.

My legs weren't working. Instead, I had managed to push myself out of my seat and land, face-first, on the floor.

"Joe!" Ken shouted, rushing to my position, just as I blacked out.

88888

I awoke in a hospital bed. This place was all too familiar. I was instantly reminded of the days I had spent in a similar medical facility, when I had been having headaches, dizziness and blackouts. That had been nearly three years ago, but the memories were as fresh as if it had been only a week before.

So much had happened since then. I had gone through a multitude of changes… not just the physical ones, but emotional changes as well. And yet, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. I was still hiding things, hiding my true self, from my teammates… my family.

But it was only to protect them. What they didn't know couldn't hurt them. Only one person had been able to see through my carefully constructed façade, and I had sworn to stay away from her.

But how could I stay away from Jun when I worked with her every day? Today, we had ended up together, and succeeded in our mission. Without me, she might never have located the module. Without her, we might never have recovered the device.

The device… what had it done to me? I blinked slowly, moaning softly as full consciousness returned.

"Joe!" Ken was standing next to my bed, looking at me with that concerned Commander look that he often wore. I had to smile. The Eagle was so predictable.

"I'm awake." I mumbled. "Now, can I get the hell out of here?" I had always hated hospitals, and I had spent a lifetime's worth of days in them, despite being only twenty-one years old.

"Not so fast." Ken placed a hand on my shoulder, although I hadn't yet made any attempts to leave the bed. "We don't really know what happened to you. Dr. Pandora wants you to stay here for a while, so she can run some tests. And now that you're awake, she'll want to talk to you." Ken reached for a call button, but my arm shot out of the bed and grabbed his wrist.

"No." I said. "Not yet…"

Ken looked at me for a long moment.

"Okay." he sighed. I guess it can wait a few more minutes."

"Thanks." I replied.

Ken didn't respond, and neither did I. The silence was suffocating. There had been a time when Ken and I had been closer than brothers; when we had told each other everything. Despite our conversation a couple of days before, things were still awkward between us.

I knew that was entirely my fault. Inside, Ken was still hurt that I hadn't contacted the team during the two years I had been gone. And then, when I had returned, I had kept my cybernetic enhancements a secret from him, and from the rest of the team. Even now, I hid the secret of my true purpose from him. Shutting myself off had become a habit. Ken knew this, and resented it.

But then, it cut both ways. Ever since we had gone into active duty at sixteen years old, Ken had shut himself off from me more and more. At first, I had thought it was just the burden of command, but I eventually came to realize that Ken was much more like his father than he would ever admit to himself. In order to lead the team, he had taken his feelings and locked them deep inside, where no one could see them… not even himself. Every so often, they came exploding to the surface, as they had after his father had died.

Of late, Ken had been having problems with that. Irrational bursts of anger were becoming more and more the norm for him. Odd… that used to be my area of expertise. In a way, we had almost switched roles.

Still, there were times, like the other night, when I almost felt like we had connected again. Were those times of mutual weakness, or mutual strength?

I didn't know.

"So… is everyone else okay?" I asked, more to break the silence than because I actually thought that they had been injured by the device.

"Everyone else is fine." Ken replied, turning his head to look away from the marine life outside the window, and toward me. "Well, except Jun."

"Jun?" I asked, concerned. "What's wrong with Jun?" I couldn't hide a note of fear from my voice.

"She's okay." Ken replied quickly, his eyes narrowing. "But completely exhausted. She spent the last thirty-six hours here, waiting for you to wake up. I sent her to her room, for some rest, just a couple of hours ago."

Jun had been here, with me, for a day and a half? I found myself glowing with unexpected pleasure at the thought. But Ken's scowl quickly erased any happiness.

"I hope she gets some sleep, then." I said calmly. "I'd hate for her to run herself down, over me."

"I'm in agreement with that." Ken said quietly.

There was another thirty seconds or so of silence, and then Ken spoke again.

"So, what happened to you, Joe?" he asked. "I just saw you fall onto the floor and black out. No one has told us anything."

I struggled to remember.

"Everyone was disembarking the New God Phoenix," I recalled, "and I stood up to follow you, but my legs didn't work. They stayed sitting in the chair, but my body was trying to stand up."

"Do you legs work now?" Ken asked.

"I don't know." I answered. Cautiously, I pulled my legs over to the side of the bed, and tried to pull up to a sitting position.

Only, my legs remained where they were. And while I could move my arms, my torso was proving to be a dead weight.

I must have allowed the panic I felt to show on my face, because Ken looked suddenly concerned.

"It's okay, Joe." he said softly, "Hakase and Dr. Pandora can figure this out. And now that you're awake, you can help them."

Silently, I nodded, watching Ken as he turned to press the call button.

Almost immediately, Dr. Pandora walked into the room.

"He's awake?" she asked Ken, who nodded at her.

"Hello, Joe." she said to me, "I'm glad you're back with us."

"Why won't my legs work?" I asked her, cutting to the chase.

"We're not entirely sure." she replied calmly, as if she had been expecting the question and preparing for it. "There appears to be no _physical_ reason why your legs won't work…"

"But…" I prompted her.

"But, we suspect there might be a _mental_ reason." Pandora finished.

Ken appeared startled.

"Are you saying that you think this is psychosomatic?" he asked, concerned.

"Oh, no!" Pandora replied, "Not at all! Only that we think that there is some disruption in Joe's mental processes. It's _as if_ his spinal cord were broken: the brain sends messages, but they don't get to his legs."

"Only, my spinal cord is fine." I said.

"Yes." the Doctor confirmed. "We suspect that there has been a malfunction in the cybernetic enhancements to your brain. I detected some strange readings while you were unconscious, and now that you're awake, I'd like to run a few more tests."

"Do you think you can reverse whatever is going on?" I asked.

"I'm going to do my best." Pandora promised, "I've already been in contact with Dr. Rafael, and he's going to send me whatever data I require."

Rafael had talked to Pandora? This _must_ be serious. I couldn't see that wily old doctor discussing his techniques with her, otherwise. A thin thread of panic began to emerge inside of me.

I squashed it hard.

"I need working legs, in order to do my job." I said to Pandora. "Let's get started as soon as possible."

"I was hoping that you would say that." she grinned. "As it happens, I am ready to begin immediately."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The tests took about four hours. During that time, I was poked and prodded over every square millimeter of my head, and at least a dozen brain scans were taken, while I made futile attempts to move my legs. Through it all, Ken sat, stone-faced, watching Dr. Pandora at work. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking.

At last, Dr. Pandora told me that we were done… for now.

"So, what did you find out?" I asked.

"Well, I have to check with Dr. Nambu first, to see what he has discovered about the device you brought back from your most recent mission…" she began.

"Don't give me that bull!" I growled. "You've been studying that thing for two days. You can't tell me that Dr. Nambu has made a breakthrough in the last couple of hours, that you don't know about. You're just stalling. Now tell me what the hell is wrong with me!"

"I think we all know what happens, when we try to keep Joe's illnesses a secret from him." Ken said quietly.

I wasn't sure if he was trying to help me, or insult me, but for the moment I took the Eagle's statement at face value.

Dr. Pandora looked at both of us, then capitulated.

"All right." she said, "I'll give you my _hypothesis_." She emphasized the last word, as if she could be terribly wrong in her analysis.

I didn't doubt that whatever she was about to tell me, was the truth.

"From what Dr. Nambu has told me of his analysis of the device, it appears to be intended for mental manipulation." she began. "We can only assume that X planned to use the device to expand his powers of mind control. It would seem that the brief flash of light that you experienced was attempting to re-route your neural pathways."

I nodded curtly. That was pretty much what it had felt like, at the time.

"However," Pandora continued, "the device was expecting to encounter an organic being. Since your brain is not entirely organic, it had unintended side effects."

"Such as, paralysis from the chest down?" I asked sarcastically.

Pandora nodded, ignoring my tone.

"The light flash from the device can best be described as a virus, that was attempting to re-program your brain. When it encountered your cybernetic brain functions, it couldn't deal with them, so it tried to shut them down. We believe that if you had been exposed longer, you would have been completely paralyzed."

I nodded, slowly, digesting the information that Dr. Pandora had given to me.

"What can you do to alter this… shut-down?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely certain." she replied. "But there are quite a few possible procedures that could work. I'd like to analyze the device with Dr. Nambu, to cement my knowledge of what it does, and how it acted on your brain."

"So, how long will I be like this?" I asked, gesturing to my frozen legs.

"It's hard to say." Pandora said honestly. "But seeing as you are a member of the Science Ninja Team, obviously this will be given top priority."

"I guess that's all I can ask for." I grumbled. "Let's just hope that Galactor doesn't decide that this is the perfect time to attack with some new mecha."

Dr. Pandora nodded, then quickly made her exit. I could tell that she wasn't excited by my mood. Hell, I hadn't been excited by what she had told me. But at least she had been truthful. That was more than I could often expect, around here.

"Don't worry, Joe." Ken said quietly, but the words rang hollow.

"I've been through worse." I replied. That was certainly true.

"I guess you have." Ken sighed, moving over toward the window to look out at the ocean waters.

We were both silent for a few minutes. I'm not sure either one of us knew what to say to each other.

The door opened, and Jun entered.

"So, how's everything…" her words died on her lips as she stared at me.

"He's awake." she said.

"That's what they tell me." I smiled. "Of course, with the tests Dr. Pandora has been performing on me for the last four hours, it was difficult to sleep."

But Jun had an entirely different reaction to my words, than the one I had anticipated.

"Why didn't you contact me?" she asked Ken angrily, whirling to face the Eagle.

"I thought you needed the rest." Ken shrugged. "I didn't want to disturb you."

"But I _specifically_ asked you to contact me the _moment_ Joe stirred." Jun said harshly. "In fact, it was the _only_ reason I let you order me back to my quarters."

"Oh, you _let_ me order you?" Ken smirked. "I don't rate any respect just for being G1, anymore?"

"Don't change the subject, Ken." Jun was angry. I could tell by the way her eyes were flashing, by her rigid posture, and the positioning of her hands on her hips. I could see that Ken knew this too, but was trying desperately to ignore it.

"Look, I ordered you back to your quarters, because you had been here for thirty-six hours, and you needed some rest." Ken said firmly.

"But you _promised_ to contact me, Ken." Jun replied. "And I _trusted_ you to do that."

"Look, Jun, it's not a big deal." Ken defended his actions, "I knew you would come see Joe, the moment you woke up."

"That's not the point, Ken." Jun said bitterly. "It's my fault for believing you, I guess."

I could see the expression of hurt on Ken's face, when she said those words. Whatever his intention had been when he hadn't contacted her, this had not been the reaction he had expected.

"Look, Jun, I'm sorry." he said, reaching out to touch her arm.

"It's not the first time you've let me down, Ken."

Suddenly, I realized that this argument was about much more than Ken not telling Jun I was awake. From what I could tell, they had completely forgotten that I was even in the room.

"You know why I had to do that, Jun." Ken said quietly.

"No, Ken, I don't." she replied. "I know what you told me, but somehow, I find it hard to believe that you are really that cold and unfeeling."

"It wouldn't have worked, while we were on active duty." Ken said staunchly. I recognized the look on his face. This was the Eagle talking.

"It would have worked, if _you_ had wanted it to work." Jun whispered. "But it's okay. At least I know where I rank." She turned away, leaning her forehead on the window.

"Jun…" Ken put his hand on her shoulder, but Jun roughly shook it off.

"Just leave, Ken." she said quietly. "Haven't you done enough?"

He lowered his head, and left the room without another word.

The room was silent for a few moments. I had the feeling that Jun had forgotten I was there at all. I felt uncomfortable, like I shouldn't have witnessed their conversation, and that I should leave Jun to herself.

But of course, I wasn't physically able to do that, just then.

"Damn," Jun muttered, slamming her fist against the window, "I thought I was past this."

"I guess you were wrong." I responded quietly.

Jun whipped her head around, an expression of surprise, and embarrassment, on her face.

"Joe!" she said, startled. "I… I'm sorry you had to hear that."

She looked so pathetic, standing there: her face tear-stained, her hair in disarray. Her forehead had a faint red mark, where she had been leaning it against the window.

Damn, she was beautiful.

I longed to put my arms around her, and tell her that everything would be all right, but I wasn't able to do so. Perhaps it was just as well.

Only, I would have done it, had I been capable, at that moment.

"It's not a big deal." I replied. "I certainly don't think any less of you, for it."

Jun sighed, then sat down on a chair, next to my bed.

"Thanks, Joe." she said quietly, hanging her head.

Hesitantly, I reached out to brush her hair out of her face.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Jun." I said softly. "The depth of your emotions makes you a stronger person."

"Oh, really?" she asked, looking into my eyes. "This, coming from the person who does everything possible to hide his emotions?"

That was different. I was only trying to distance myself, not hide my emotions.

Or was it the same thing?

"Perhaps…" I thought out loud, "Perhaps, hiding my emotions is a sign of weakness, on my part."

"I have _never_ thought of _you_ as being weak." Jun protested.

"I _am_ weak." I replied, looking away. "I can't deal with the ramifications of my emotions, so I have to push them away."

"You don't _always_ push them away." Jun pointed out.

"You make it easy for me to show them." I admitted ruefully. I could hardly believe that I had said that, but it was the truth.

"Are you saying, that I'm a source of strength for you?" Jun smiled wryly.

Actually, in a way, she was. But in another way, she was also a source of weakness.

"You make me feel like I'm capable of anything." I grinned. I acted like I was joking, but I was revealing a truth.

"That's right… like Superman." Jun smiled.

She had remembered my foolish comment from a few days before. I discovered a smile slowly creeping across my face.

"If I have to go on more missions with you, I guess I'll have to change my colors to blue and red." I joked.

"No, don't do that." Jun protested with a smile. "I think I've gotten used to the _Condor_ coming to my rescue."

"It hasn't happened _that_ often." It was my turn to protest.

"I'll never forget, when you saved my life, on K3." she said softly.

Neither would I. That day was burned into my memory, and my consciousness: a turning point in this shell of a life I was living.

I had been ordered by Dr. Nambu to climb the North Face of K3, in the Himalayas, to reach a Galactor base. I had been angry at first, because Hakase had sent me alone, knowing that I wasn't human. It was just another reminder that I wasn't like the others, and shouldn't be working with them.

Of course, they had all wanted to accompany me, but I had refused, even having to enforce that refusal with my fists. Jun had insisted on going with me, and as thanks I had tried to run her over with the Condor Attacker.

I could barely think about it now: how rudely I had treated her, when she had only been trying to help. But at the time I had been so wrapped up in my cybernetic isolation, that I had refused to see her genuine offer as anything other than interfering. It hadn't been that long since the team had discovered that I was a cyborg, and I had still been deeply ashamed of what my body had become.

Jun had followed me, despite my rebuff, and eventually, I had reluctantly accepted her presence on the arduous climb. About six hours into our ascent, she had accidentally dropped a bomb, which had warned Galactor of our presence. Gel Sadra had generated an avalanche, which had caused Jun to lose her grasp and fall, held on only by the rope that had connected us.

It was at that point that I had faced a crucial decision: Jun's life was in jeopardy, but in order to return and save her, I had to abandon the mission.

I had chosen to abandon the mission.

At the time, I had cursed myself for doing so, and for allowing Jun to come with me in the first place. But as I had pulled her up to safety, and moved her to a small ledge to shelter us, she had been shivering; literally freezing to death. Not knowing what else to do, I had wrapped my arms around her, desperately trying to warm her human body with my mechanical one.

I had never spoken about it to anyone, least of all Jun, but a part of me cherished those hours we had spent together, waiting for rescue. She had nestled within my arms, against my chest, as if it were the most natural place in the world for her to be. That was when I had first come to understand that in some ways, I was still very much a man.

Of course, that hadn't been the end of it. We had been discovered by Galactor, and by that point I had been so cold myself, that I had barely been able to move. Ken, Jinpei and Ryu had had to stop Gel Sadra and her troops, and destroy the Galactor base.

When it was finally all over, I had been ready to walk away, and put the entire incident behind me. But Jun had looked up at me, with tearful eyes, and thanked me for saving her life. She had told me that it had been my body heat that had saved her: heat from the blood rushing through my veins, generated by the organic components of my body.

She had said that I was still human, and even more so than other men, because I was her friend.

Those words had affected me deeply. Jun had simply, and unashamedly, said what was in her heart. She had been able to see right through, to the core of me, to a place that even _I_ hadn't known still existed.

It was thanks to Jun, that I had been able to come to an acceptance, of my life.

How could I convey this to her? Did I even want her to know what kind of effect she had had on me? I was supposed to be pushing her away; not pulling her close. How would she feel when her 'friend' was gone? She would feel even worse if I were more than a friend.

"I'll never forget K3, either." was all I said.

But somehow, she seemed to understand the intense meaning behind my few words.

I couldn't hide myself from Jun. I found myself completely exposed before her ingenuous eyes.

Yet, she was the one who turned away, breaking the connection we had established through our shared memories.

"I… I have to tell you something, Joe." she said, her hair hiding her face again.

"What is it, Jun?" I asked, curious. When I saw her tremble, I touched her arm lightly.

"You can tell me anything, Jun." I whispered, "You know that."

My mind was screaming at me, telling me to pull away, telling me that I didn't want to know whatever secret Jun had to reveal. But my heart, that phylactery of life nestled against both my destiny, and my death, shouted it down; grasping at the emotional bond I shared with the Swan.

Jun turned back to face me, an unreadable expression on her face.

"On K3…" she said, so quiet that even I, with my enhanced hearing, had to strain to make out her words, "when I dropped the bomb…"

"Yes?"

The word hung in the air between us, gently encouraging her to finish her confession.

"I did it on purpose."

My thoughts were awhirl, images of that day rushing through my mind. If Jun hadn't dropped that bomb, then Galactor would not have noticed us, there would have been no avalanche, she and I would have reached the top, and defeated Gel Sadra on our own.

"Why?"

"I…" her cheeks flushed. This was obviously difficult for her to admit. "I wanted… I _needed_… to get through to you. I could see that being a cyborg was tearing you up inside, and when Hakase ordered you to undertake the mission alone, I knew that isolated you even more. You showed me that, when you refused to have any of us come with you."

"I know it was presumptuous of me," Jun admitted, hanging her head, "but I knew that _somehow_, I needed to force you to see that you _were_ still human… and that you were still a part of the team. That we needed you."

While I was obviously astounded to hear Jun utter these words, a small part of me, deep inside, wasn't entirely surprised. While she was nowhere near as reckless as I was… or had been, before that fateful day at Cross Karokorum… Jun had been known to take impulsive actions before. It had been just such an action that had sent her after the Jigokillers.

More than that, I somehow understood her motivation. Jun had always been the heart and soul of the team. She saw us all as her family, and would never let anything destroy that. Even more, I had seen her abandon missions before, to help one of us, when we needed it. She would _never_ leave one of us behind, if we were in trouble. That just wasn't the kind of person she was.

Ryu had told me what had happened inside the Galactor Base, at Cross Karokorum. Ken had wanted to go inside the machinery of the device that was executing the Black Hole Operation, but Jun had held him back. She hadn't wanted him to be crushed by the gears, even if it meant that the Earth itself would be destroyed. The love she had had for Ken had been stronger than her need to defeat Galactor.

And now, it appeared that she had had the same feelings about me, when we were on K3.

"So… you dropped the bomb on purpose." I whispered.

"Yes." Jun sighed. "Of course, I didn't anticipate the full sequence of events that followed, but I wanted you to make the choice… the choice to help me, or to go on."

I had made that choice. She had risked everything to give it to me, and had trusted me with her life.

Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, Jun went on.

"I knew that I was putting the mission in jeopardy, but I also knew that Ken, Jinpei, and Ryu were not far behind. I didn't think that it would really prevent us from accomplishing our objective. Besides… _you_ were more important, Joe. I knew that you had no qualms about running off and getting yourself killed, particularly that day, when your cybernetic nature was weighing heavily on your mind. "

She was pleading with me now, begging me to understand why she had done this thing.

In a way, I suppose I had always realized that something wasn't right. Jun had never been the 'damsel in distress' type, and everything had just been too _convenient_.

Even more, Jun had accomplished her objective. The experience had gotten me to look at myself in a new light, and as a result, I was more at peace with myself than I had been, ever since that cursed day at Cross Karokorum.

Slowly, with what little movement I was capable of, I reached out to her, drawing her head down to my chest, embracing her gently, feeling her body convulse as she sobbed and gasped for air.

"It's okay, Jun." I said, softly stroking her hair. "I understand. I know the value of what you taught me that day, about myself."

"Thank you, Joe." she whispered. "Thank you, for your forgiveness."

She turned her head slightly, to look at me, our faces a bare inch apart.

"I could never stay mad at you, Jun." I replied. "You know me too well for that."

Her lips curved into a soft smile, and I felt them brushing against mine: a whisper lighter than air.

"Sometimes, I think you know me, better than I know myself." she said.

"The feeling is mutual." I breathed, nervously wondering what was happening between us.

This time, her lips weren't whispering. They were a source of heat and pressure against my own: a force to be reckoned with.

I couldn't help but give way beneath her gentle assault, returning her kiss as if I were drowning, and it was my only bridge back to life.

A bridge back to a life I had once had.

A life that no longer existed.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jun and I never talked about it afterward, but it was clear, after that day, that the nature of our interaction… our _relationship_… had changed. Over the next few days, while I waited for Hakase and Dr. Pandora to settle on a procedure that would reverse my paralysis, Jun remained by my side, keeping me from going out of my mind with boredom.

In many ways, I regretted what had taken place that day. I knew that whatever was going on between us was fleeting, and that I would have no place in Jun's future.

But damn, it felt good.

It had been so long since I had felt _anything_ like this… I had thought that I had felt something for Kathy, another of Dr. Rafael's cyborgs, but that had been more wishful thinking… a longing for a 'normal' life: something that neither one of us could have.

I was used to being carried away by my physical reactions to women, but this was different. Since that one kiss, we hadn't had any contact of that nature, and yet I found myself drawn to Jun; missing her when she wasn't there, and glowing inside when she was.

I found my carefully constructed resolve weakening under the onslaught of Jun's attention. The sound of her voice, her elusive scent, the touch of her hand against mine, her warm smile… all of these things had me abandoning my previous intentions to distance myself.

Each moment we were together, I told myself that it was the last time; that the next time, I would push her away. But that never happened.

The more time we spent together, the more I found that Jun was becoming an important part of my life. I found myself becoming selfish, and encouraging her company, even though I knew that it could only result in emotional pain for her, later on.

A couple of days after I had awoken, Jinpei came to visit me. Unlike his previous visits, this time, he was alone.

"Hi, Joe." he said simply, sitting down next to my bed. "How's it going?"

"Pretty dull, actually." I replied sardonically. "It's not like there's a whole lot to do here. I miss training, and working on the Attacker."

"So… you're basically looking for anything to relieve the boredom, huh?" Jinpei asked hesitantly.

This was completely unlike the Squirt. He had always been very direct, and to the point. He never hesitated to throw some sarcastic comment my way. Ever since I had returned, he had been even more ready to throw a jibe or joke in my direction, despite the way I attempted to distance myself from the team. But now, for some reason, he seemed to be skirting around his true purpose.

I decided to ask him straight out what he wanted. I figured that at least, he would respect me for that, even if he bit my head off.

"Out with it, Kid." I said firmly. "It's not like you to beat around the bush like this. What's bothering you?"

"It's… Jun." Jinpei replied, looking somewhat relieved to be broaching the subject.

"Jun?" I asked, concerned, "Is she okay? Is there a problem?"

"That's what I came to ask you." Jinpei said, looking at me curiously. "I know she's been spending a lot of time with you, in the last few days."

I relaxed again. Jun was fine. Jinpei was just sticking his nose where it didn't belong, as usual.

"Yeah." I confirmed. "She's been really nice, helping to keep me from going out of my mind with boredom."

"Is that all it is?" Jinpei asked, his eyes boring into me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, grinning. _This_ was the Jinpei I knew. He didn't pussyfoot around when there was something on his mind.

"I mean…" Jinpei sighed, as if deciding how much he wanted to say, then threw up his hands in the air, as if giving up.

"She talks about you." Jinpei revealed, "All the time. It's Joe this, and Joe that… I'm getting a bit sick of it, frankly." He glared at me in his usual awkward fashion.

I was surprised by what the Swallow had said. Certainly I had been enjoying Jun's company, and I knew that she had been enjoying mine, but this indicated something else entirely.

"I see…" I muttered, not sure what to say.

"I'm just worried…" Jinpei continued. "She…"

The Swallow took a deep breath, then plunged ahead.

"I want to know what you guys are doing." Jinpei demanded.

"What?" I asked, surprised enough to unconsciously take the defensive position. "We're just talking! That's it!" Of course, that wasn't _entirely_ true, but it was pretty close to the truth.

"Look, Joe…" Jinpei continued, "When Ken left her, Jun was devastated. You weren't there, so you didn't see it. She really took it hard."

"I gathered as much." I replied grimly.

"I just don't want to see her hurt, again." Jinpei insisted. "So I'll ask you one more time: what are you guys doing?"

I understood where he was coming from, and I appreciated his desire to protect Jun, however misguided. Yet at the same time, I resented a twelve-year-old kid questioning my motives.

Of course, what made it worse was that he was _right_ to be questioning my motives, even if not for the reasons he thought. I found myself deeply ashamed at my own selfishness. I had been valuing Jun's company in the present, more than her own happiness in the future.

Now it was too late. I had forced my own hand. By letting Jun get close to me, I had ensured that she would get hurt… one way, or the other.

I had to tell her. I had to explain to her what my true purpose was.

She had to decide for herself, if she wanted to get close to me.

Jinpei was still looking at me expectantly, awaiting my answer.

"I promise, Jinpei," I said, "I won't be the one to break things off with her."

It was the only shred of honesty I could give him.

88888

Not even an hour after Jinpei had left, Jun came for a visit. As usual, her bright smile lit up the room, and despite myself, I found my heart leaping at the sight of her.

But my mind had been dreading this moment. I had to face up to my personal failures, and reveal the secret I had been hiding from her.

"Hi, Joe!" Jun said cheerily, "How are you doing, today?"

"I'm fine." I lied. "It's great to see you, Jun." At least that last part wasn't a lie.

But Jun could see right through me.

"What's wrong, Joe?" she asked, sitting down at my bedside.

I was still somewhat amazed, at the way the Swan could always sense my emotions. It was like she had some strange connection into my mind, and my heart. No matter how much this might tear us both apart, I knew I was doing the right thing, by coming clean. I couldn't have kept on hiding things much longer.

"You have this way of seeing what's going on inside of me, Jun," I said, "but there's something that you haven't seen."

"What's that, Joe?" Jun asked, her voice betraying her concern.

I found myself struggling to look at her, but I forced my eyes to stare into hers. She deserved that much, at least.

"The other day, you confessed something to me." I began.

"Yes…" Jun said, her cheeks flushing, "That was a difficult admission for me, but I'm glad that you know, now."

"I'm glad you told me, as well." I replied, "But now, I have something to confess to you."

"Go on." Jun softly encouraged me, by taking my hands in hers.

"When I returned to the team, you know that I was torn." I said. "Even that day in the desert, when I helped you, I fully intended to leave you all again. But you all convinced me to stay. I wanted to be with the team, and yet, I also felt the need to distance myself."

"I know all of this." Jun squeezed my hands. "You were afraid of how you would fit in, being a cyborg. You didn't feel that you were a man. But you _are_ a man, Joe. You've proven that many times over, since then."

"I appreciate that, Jun." I smiled wryly. "But you had to have noticed, even after K3, that I continued to isolate myself. I know damn well that you made it your personal mission to drag me out of that. That's why you did what you did, on K3, right?"

Jun nodded quietly, studying me with an intent gaze.

"I can't hide my motives from you, Joe." she smiled. "But in the last few months, you _have_ opened up more, especially to me. And I sense that you are a much happier person, because of that."

"I _am_ much happier," I confessed, "but… it's not right, Jun."

"What?" Jun exclaimed. "It's not right that you should have some happiness in your life? You'll have to explain that to me."

"You don't know everything about my cybernetic enhancements, Jun." I revealed, "You know that I'm designed to move faster, strike harder… a perfect killing machine. But I'm more than a killing machine… I am a weapon. My _body_ is a weapon."

"I don't understand the distinction you're making, Joe." Jun shook her head in confusion.

"When Dr. Rafael saved me, and turned me into a cyborg, he had an ulterior motive."

"What was that?"

"He wanted me to kill Leader X."

"By yourself?" Jun gasped at my revelation.

"Jun, you can't talk to anyone about this, not even Hakase." I said. "What I'm about to tell you, remains between us."

"I promise." Jun said solemnly. Instinctively, I knew I could trust her.

"In order to help me kill Leader X, Dr. Rafael gave me the ability to sensehim, when we are in close proximity." I explained, "He also gave me this." I took her hand and laid it gently on my chest.

"Your heart?" Jun asked, confused.

"No, my heart is still my own." I replied, "It's what's next to it."

"It's a bomb." I said grimly.

Jun stared at me in silence for a moment, then spoke.

"What kind of bomb?" she asked. I could tell that this was the Swan speaking. She was ready to use her knowledge of explosives, to do whatever she could to help me.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do.

"It's set to detonate, when I am in Leader X's presence." I responded.

Jun's face took on a horrified expression, which slowly changed to a speculative one. It was like I could see the lightbulb turning on in her head.

"No, Jun." I said, halting her thoughts before they were spoken aloud. "I _have_ to do this. I can't hide from X. Don't you see? X is the whole reason Galactor has any power at all. Even after Katse died, X held all the power. Even if we manage to kill Gel Sadra, as long as X is alive, the threat to Earth exists."

Jun shook her head in a jerky motion, a silent tear sliding down her cheek. I hated what I was doing to her, by telling her this. How could I have been so self-centered; pulling her closer, knowing that it would all come down to this?

I was the kind of monster I had always condemned Galactor for being: proud, foolish and selfish, not caring whom I hurt, as long as _I_ was happy.

I tried to apologize, but I couldn't think of the appropriate words to say. 'I'm sorry.' just seemed so inadequate for what she was feeling, and I knew there was nothing I could do to ease her pain.

Jun clutched at my hands, as if they were her only remaining connection with me. In a way, they were exactly that.

"I have to do this, Jun." I said, burning with shame. "I've always known that. I know the pain that you all went through when you thought I was dead, before. I didn't want the team… especially _you_, Jun… to have to go through that again, I thought that if I kept myself away from you, then…"

"Then we wouldn't be hurt?" Jun asked.

I nodded.

"I never intended to get close to you, Jun, but these past few days…" I could barely say the words. "I've been selfish."

"Selfish?" Jun said quietly, "No, that's not a word I would ever use to describe you, Joe."

"But I _have_ been selfish." I explained. "I've been thinking only of myself… of how happy you make me… of how much I enjoy being with you."

I was taken aback by Jun's brilliant smile. The pleasure emanating from her eyes was almost tangible.

"I enjoy being with you too, Joe." she blushed.

I couldn't believe that someone as intelligent as Jun wasn't grasping what I was saying. I tried again to explain.

"Don't you see, Jun?" I asked harshly, pulling my hands away from hers, "That's the problem! I've let you get close to me, even knowing that I have to… leave you."

"Joe," Jun insisted, "there _has_ to be another way."

I shook my head angrily.

"There isn't, Jun." I said firmly. "By allowing myself to open up to you, all I've done is to guarantee that you'll get hurt… one way, or the other…"

"And what makes you so certain that I'm going to get hurt?" Jun asked indignantly, crossing her arms in a vague imitation of my usual pose. "I think I have a right to make my own decisions."

"You're right, Jun." I acknowledged, "That's why I'm telling you this, now. I… I realized that you deserved to know what… what you were getting into…"

"What I'm getting into, is something _wonderful_, Joe." she interrupted me. "You've cheated death more than once before. There's no reason to think that you won't do so again."

"Jun…" I tried to reason with her, "There's no way I can survive if that bomb next to my heart detonates."

"Then we'll have to make sure that it never detonates." she stated firmly. "I agree that we need to eliminate X, but not this way, Joe."

I finally understood. It wasn't that Jun didn't comprehend what I was saying; quite the opposite, in fact. She was just refusing to give up on me. Jun put the team… her family… first, as she always had. For her, _no_ mission was worth losing anyone on the team. Just like she had on K3, she was placing herself, her future happiness, in my hands, forcing me to choose between her, and the mission.

Only, I wasn't certain that I could make that choice again.

"Jun…" I whispered, hating what I had to say, "I have to do this. I can't turn my back on what I'm designed to do."

"If it comes down to that, I'll understand, Joe." Jun replied calmly. "But I _refuse_ to think of that as a pre-determined outcome. There are _always_ choices… there are _always_ other options. We just have to find one."

"But, when…" I changed my choice of words after seeing the look in her eyes, "_If_ I have to do this, I will die." I said simply.

"And what makes you think that you won't die on any other mission?" Jun asked straightforwardly. "Or for that matter, that _I_ won't die on any other mission?"

She had a point there. How many times had we all had a close brush with Death? I couldn't even count the number of near misses, close scrapes, and severe beatings we had endured. There was no guarantee that I wouldn't die anyway… or that _she_ wouldn't.

My throat constricted at the thought of losing Jun. I looked at her, an unshed tear in my eye.

"Now you know how _I_ feel." Jun replied. "I'd do anything I could, to save you."

"I… I don't know what to say." I gasped.

"You don't have to say anything." Jun smiled, laying her head on my chest and wrapping her arms around me tightly. "Just know that I'm not going to give up on you. _Ever_."

Somehow, when she said it like that, I could imagine that things would work out for us.

If only they actually could.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I was reading, a few hours later that same day, when I heard the door to my room open. Looking up, I tossed my magazine aside to see a man in a white lab coat slip into the room. His furtive manner immediately led me to suspect that he had no business whatsoever being in here.

He didn't notice me right away, but was instead concentrating upon a device he held in his hand. It appeared to be some kind of GPS system. He moved it around, until it pointed toward me, then looked up.

He appeared to be as surprised to see me, as I had been to see him.

"The Condor!" he said, momentarily taken aback. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Funny," I drawled, "I was about to ask _you_ the same thing… _Galactor_." I wasn't completely sure this _was_ actually a Galactor agent, but his manner was setting off alarm bells in my head.

The man's surprised reaction confirmed my suspicions. He did not immediately reply, but took a quick look around.

"This… this is a hospital room." he said slowly.

"Well," I replied sardonically, "now that you have demonstrated your astounding powers of deduction, perhaps you'd care to tell me where you _thought_ you were."

"You!" the Galactor exclaimed, ignoring my comment, "_You're_ triggering my locator!"

He began to laugh.

"Stupid Science Ninja Team!" he guffawed, "You were messing with Leader X's device, weren't you?"

I was beginning to lose patience with this man, but refrained from showing it.

"I have no idea how you got in here, but rest assured, you _will_ be captured shortly." I said quietly. I contemplated using my bracelet to contact the others, but I didn't want to scare him off. Perhaps I could get some useful information out of him, first. He appeared to know about the device.

"Captured?" the man laughed, "By whom? You?" He laughed even harder. "You're lying there in that hospital bed, radiating the frequencies of Leader X's device… and you _still_ haven't done anything about my intrusion."

The Galactor stepped closer to me, a threatening look in his eyes.

"I don't think you _can_ do anything. I think you're stuck there, in that bed." he challenged me.

"Oh, really?" I bluffed, hoping it sounded believable, "What makes you think I'm not just luring you into a false sense of security?"

"_This_." the man stated, pulling a gun out of his coat and pointing it directly at me.

At that moment, I was desperately wishing for a few feather shuriken. Unfortunately, the hospital staff had taken my remaining few when I was unconscious. If I had had them handy, I could easily have taken out this pathetic excuse for an agent. He was still too far away for me to reach out to him and snap his neck, as I would have liked to do.

I had nothing; no weapons at my disposal. Just my useless, unresponsive body.

The Galactor noticed my hesitation, and a terrible smile crept across his face. He seemed… familiar, somehow.

"I see that you remember me, Condor." he sneered. "I helped put at least a dozen bullets into your sorry body, at Cross Karokorum. Obviously that didn't finish you off."

He looked me up and down, a vicious glare in his eyes.

"I'll make sure I do it right, _this time_, Condor." he growled, cocking his gun.

Quickly, I used my arms to propel myself out of the bed; throwing my body at the Galactor agent and using my considerable body weight to maintain my momentum.

He was so surprised that he didn't manage to get off a shot, and I was able to knock him to the ground. We tumbled to the floor. I was grabbing onto his knees, and he rolled onto his back. I gripped as tightly as I could, hearing his bones break within my arms. He grimaced, but a look of determination remained in his eyes.

Just as quickly as I had moved, he leaned forward, pointing the gun directly between my eyes.

"Game over, Condor." he smirked. "I guess that's all you've got."

"But that's not all _I've_ got." came a voice from the doorway.

The Galactor looked away just in time to see the tip of Jun's Aurora Ribbon slice through his face, nearly taking off the top half of his head entirely. He slumped to the floor, his gun clattering on the cold tile.

"Joe, are you all right?" Jun exclaimed, rushing to my side.

"I'm okay." I replied, "Although I can't say the same for this piece of garbage."

"What is he doing here?" Jun asked, concerned.

"I think he was looking for Leader X's device." I explained. "We need to let Dr. Nambu know. He may not have been alone."

But as I raised my arm, both of our bracelets beeped urgently.

"This is an emergency!" came Dr. Nambu's voice. "Assemble in my office, immediately!"

"I guess you should go." I winked at Jun.

"Not before I help you back into bed." she said firmly.

"But Hakase needs you." I protested, even as she lifted me off of the floor.

"I can't leave you like this." Jun replied firmly, pulling me back to my bed, and helping me onto it.

"I'm fine, now." I smiled. "Go! That's an order!"

"I'm going!" she laughed, running out of the room.

88888

The moment she was gone, I contacted Dr. Nambu, to inform him about the Galactor agent in my room. He left the connection open so that I could hear what was going on during his meeting with the team.

"We have an emergency situation." Hakase began, barely a minute after he had sent his summons. "At least two Galactor agents have infiltrated G-Town. One broke into my office less than five minutes ago, as I was completing an analysis of the Solectran device you recovered on your last mission."

"Was he after the device?" I heard Ken ask grimly.

"Yes." Nambu confirmed. "It would appear that Leader X was somehow able to discover a way to locate the device, within a certain range. In X's search for the device, we have apparently unwittingly led him to G-Town."

"Where is the agent now?" Jinpei asked angrily. "Is he still here?"

"I believe so." the Doctor replied. "I have G-Town on full lockdown, to prevent anyone from coming or going."

"Did he manage to obtain the Solectran Device?" Jun asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Nambu sighed. "He attempted to kill me as well, but was distracted when security arrived. In the resulting confusion he grabbed the device and ran out."

"Didn't you say that there were at least _two_ agents?" Ryu pointed out. "What about the other one?"

"Another agent appeared in Joe's room at the Medical Center, but he has been taken care of." Hakase informed the team. I could imagine Jun smirking at that comment.

"There may be more Galactor agents here, so take all appropriate precautions. I am ordering you to find these infiltrators and capture them. Alive, if possible." Nambu finished.

"Roger!" everyone shouted.

"I pray for your success."

88888

Perhaps thirty seconds after Dr. Nambu had dismissed the team, he appeared in my room. He must have had to run the entire way, to have arrived so quickly, but I didn't notice a hair out of place. It amazed me how Hakase was always able to maintain his polished appearance, under the most intense pressure.

"This is the Galactor agent who attacked you?" he asked, examining the inert body on the floor, next to my bed.

"Yes. " I replied.

"I wish Jun had merely subdued him, instead of killing him." Nambu muttered. "He could have provided us with valuable information."

"That's what _I_ thought too, until he had a gun aimed directly at my forehead." I pointed out.

"Jun did what she had to do." I defended the Swan. There was no way I would let Hakase reprimand her for saving my life.

"I understand, Joe." Nambu replied, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder.

Suddenly, the Doctor furrowed his brow, and he looked more closely at the body.

"What is this?" he asked, bending down to pick up the object in the Galactor agent's hand.

"He said it was a 'locator'." I offered. "He used it to detect something… he said I was emitting some kind of frequency."

"A frequency?" Nambu questioned, his head snapping up to look in my direction. "This locator is how they were attempting to track the Solectran device?"

"I think so." I shrugged. "Apparently though, this one pointed right to me, which is why the agent showed up here. In fact… he was surprised to see me, but immediately accused me of tampering with X's device."

Hakase appeared thoughtful.

"Joe, that's it!" he suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Now I understand what the device has been doing to your bodily functions!" Nambu said excitedly, "And I _think_ I might know how to counteract it."

I grinned. That was terrific news. This bed was getting old… fast.

"Let me confer with Dr. Pandora, and I will get back to you as quickly as I can, on this." he promised. "But in the meantime, of course, we need to capture that other agent."

The Doctor pulled his personal communicator out of his pocket. Rather than a bracelet, he used this device to monitor our frequencies when we were on a mission.

"I presume you'd like to listen in?" he smiled at me.

"Only to see how much trouble they're in, without me." I drawled sarcastically.

Hakase raised an eyebrow at me, but did not respond. He turned on his communicator and immediately the room was filled with a multitude of sounds. The system apparently filtered the signals coming from our bracelets and let through the audio for the most prominent signal at any given moment; small lights turning on and off to indicate which signal was being broadcasted. In a way, I was fascinated, I had seen Hakase's communicator before, but had never experienced its use when we were on a mission.

After a second or two, the communicator was able to filter out all of the noise and concentrate on broadcasting the most relevant individual signals. I hadn't realized that even when we weren't officially communicating with each other, as long as our bracelets were turned on, the surrounding audio could be broadcast to Hakase.

Hearing the audio, and seeing the different lights flashing (to indicate from which bracelet the signal was being picked up) was almost like listening to an old-fashioned radio drama

_**G1:**__I think I've located one of the agents. _

sound of running footsteps and heavy breathing

_Stop! You won't get away with this! _

_**Unfamiliar Voice:**__ You can't catch me Gatchaman! _

laugh

sound of gunfire, sound of metal hitting metal

_**Unfamiliar Voice:**__ I told you! I entered this base without being detected, and I'll be able to leave as well!_

_If you move one step further, I'll shoot!_

_**Unfamiliar Voice:**__ That's not such a good idea, Gatchaman. This device is very sensitive. You wouldn't want to destroy it, now would you? _

sounds of a struggle

_Damn it! He has the device, and he's heading toward the Missile Bay!_

_**G3:**__ I'm with you, Commander. I'll rendezvous with you there._

_**G4**__: I've found…_

grunting, sounds of soft impact and ragged breathing

_**Another Unfamiliar Voice**__: Damn kid!_

_Another Galactor heading…_

thumps and grunts

_Oof!_

_Damn it! _

sound of footsteps running away

_**G1:**__ G4, what's going on?_

_**G4:**__ Uh… nothing…_

_**G1:**__ This isn't the time for games, G4!_

_**G5:**__It's okay, Commander, I'm on the Galactor's tail. G4 is with me. _

panting and grunting interspersed with the sound of heavy footfalls

_**G4:**__We'll get him!_

_**G3:**__ I'm approaching the Missile Bay, Commander. Where are you?_

_Wait, I see him! He's still got the device…_

scuffling, sound of sonic blasts

_Damn! He got into the Missile Bay…_

_I'm locked out!_

_**G1:**__ What the hell are you waiting for? Blast the door open!_

_**G3:**__ Uh, Commander, this is _our_ base, remember?_

_**G1:**__ Permission to blast that door open is granted! Now G3! _

Dr. Nambu visibly winced.

_**G3:**__ Roger!_

_**G5:**__ Uh… the other Galactor just entered the air duct system._

_**G1:**__ So follow him, damn it!_

_**G5:**__ I would… but… uh… it's kind of a small opening…_

_**G4:**__ Just put me on your damn shoulders and I'll go in there!_

_**G5:**__ That's a good idea!_

_**G3:**_sound of explosion

coughs

_No sign of the Galactor or the device, Commander._

_**G1:**__ I can't see him either! Where the hell is he? _

_There are no exits from here!_

_**G3:**__ Except…_

scrambling, sounds of thumping on thin metallic surfaces

loud metallic crash, screaming

_**G4:**__ Come back here, Galactor scum!_

_**G3:**__ Aurora Ribbon! _

scream, dull thud

_**G4:**__ Nice shot, Onechan!_

_**G1:**__Where is the other one?_

_**G3:**__As I was trying to say, before we were so rudely interrupted…_

_**G4:**__ Hey, it's not my fault this place has insufficient reinforcement on the air ducts!_

_**G3:**__ I think he must have gone into one of the missile launch tubes._

_**G1:**__Confirmed… one unauthorized missile launch twenty seconds ago. _

loud scream of frustration

_Damn Galactor!_

_**G3:**__Maybe I can track it…_

sounds of typing

_**G5:**_panting and puffing

_Hey… guys… what'd I miss?_

_**G4:**__ Well, I fell from the ceiling…_

_**G3:**__ I've got it, Commander!_

_**G1:**__ Good work! Where is he?_

_**G3:**__ Missile was intercepted by some kind of submarine at these co-ordinates._

_**G1:**__ We have to follow them. Everyone to the New God Phoenix! _

scrambling, running sounds

Suddenly I had an entirely new perspective on our missions.

At this point, Dr. Nambu activated his own communicator's transmission function.

"Follow that submarine, Commander. We must retrieve that device, or at least prevent it from falling into Leader X's possession." he ordered.

_**G1:**__ Roger, Doctor! _

Dr. Nambu turned off the communicator.

"I'll confer with Dr. Pandora immediately, regarding the possibility of reversing the damage the device has done to your body." he informed me.

"Sounds good to me." I growled. "I want to join the team as soon as possible."

88888

"We think we've come up with a way to reverse your paralysis." Dr. Pandora said, barely twenty minutes later. Her voice was quiet, but she stared at me intently.

A thread of nervous excitement began to make its way through my body.

"How?" I asked.

"Thanks to the locator that was recovered, we know the frequencies on which the Solectron device operates, and the exact combination of frequencies it re-programmed in the cybernetic portions of your brain. I'm pretty sure I can set up a series of canceling frequencies, to neutralize its effect."

"_Pretty sure_… what does that mean?" I questioned her.

"It means that it might not work. " Pandora replied forthrightly. "I don't have that much hands on experience with Dr. Rafael's handiwork, and even if I had, you are a unique construct of his. It's possible that whatever I do could only worsen the damage."

"Do you still want to go through with this?" she asked.

"Of course." I responded without hesitation. "But I appreciate that you told me the risks."

"If this works," Pandora continued, "then your recovery should be nearly immediate. You would be able to join the team on this mission."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I grinned.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I was awake for the entire procedure, barely feeling anything as Dr. Pandora accessed various outlets and controls buried under my hair. But then, there was a sudden surge, and I received a flood of sensory input from my lower body, all in the space of a few seconds.

I felt overwhelmed for a minute or so, while Dr. Pandora finished what was left of her work.

"It looks like I've had some success?" she asked me gently.

"Yes." I nodded, gasping. "It's just a little… much… right now."

"That's understandable." she replied. "All of the data your body has been trying to send to your brain for the past week has been denied access. It's just been piling up, waiting for those nerve pathways to re-open."

"That explains it." I muttered, slowly sitting up. The tidal wave of information was beginning to subside.

"Thank you." I said gratefully, looking up at her. She gave me a bare hint of a smile.

"Are you able to stand?" she questioned me, returning to her crisp demeanor.

"I… I think so." I said, gently lowering my feet to the floor, still holding onto the bed. I was able to let go, and stand by myself.

The moment I was standing completely under my own power, I grabbed for my clothing, which had been left on top of a nearby counter. Ignoring the redness that spread to Pandora's face, I pulled on my civvies, then swung my left arm around, in front of my face.

"Bird… Go!" I shouted.

Dr. Pandora was illuminated by the brief light flash of my transmutation, and I could see that her embarrassment had turned to surprise.

It was so rare that anything was able to rattle Pandora's cage, that it felt good to get one up on her, even in something as minor as this.

"I'm ready to join my teammates." I smirked.

"They'll be coming to join you, actually." Dr. Nambu said dryly, as he entered the room.

"I don't need a pickup service!" I growled impatiently.

"That's not what I meant." Hakase replied calmly. "They also have to come back here to be briefed on this." He held up the locator that he had retrieved from the agent whom Jun had killed in my room.

"What do they need to be briefed on?" I asked, confused.

"Apparently, they lost track of the submarine, in which the Galactor agents escaped." Nambu informed me. "However, I believe you can use this locator to track the Solectran device, just as Galactor did."

"Then I'll be waiting to meet them." I grinned.

88888

Not long after that, I found myself standing at the doors to the New God Phoenix hangar, waiting for the water to recede, so that I could enter. It was hard to believe that only a couple of hours before, I had been confined to my bed.

To expedite our departure, Hakase had briefed me on everything that he and Dr. Pandora had learned about the locator. The moment the doors opened, I raced inside the room and through the entrance hatch, and was standing on the Bridge of the New God Phoenix within a few seconds.

"Joe!" cried Jinpei, leaping up and rushing to my position. He wrapped his skinny arms and legs around me: the way he usually did with Ryu. I knew that we must have looked ridiculous, but I was touched. Obviously the kid had been worried about me.

Another person who was going to be hurt, when I eventually…

I refused to think about that right then, instead choosing to acknowledge Jinpei's gesture.

"Thanks, Kid." I grinned, patting his back. "It's good to be back."

"It's great to see you walking again, Joe." Ryu smiled.

"Galactor couldn't keep me down, forever." I bragged.

"It's good to be a whole team again." Ken said, holding out his hand. "It's not the same without you, Joe."

I grasped his hand firmly, and smiled back at him.

"I appreciate that, Ken." I replied.

"Well, now that we have everyone aboard, let's get out of here!" Ken ordered. Ryu immediately turned and began the launch sequence. Even during our few words of greeting, the Docking Bay had already been re-filling with water.

During this entire exchange, Jun had been sitting quietly in her seat, smiling softly at me, her eyes shining. I looked her way, smiling back.

"How would you like to sit in my seat, for awhile?" I asked Jinpei, disentangling the Swallow's remaining limbs from my body.

"Really?" Jinpei asked. "Why?"

"I have to give this to your sister." I explained, holding up the locator, "And explain to her what Hakase told me about it."

"So, do you really think we can use that thing to track down the device?" Ken asked.

"Definitely." I replied confidently. "If anyone can interpret its output to do so, it's Jun."

"You have a point." Ken cracked a smile. "Okay, get started,"

I walked the few steps over to Jinpei's chair and slid into the seat. Obviously I was happy to see Jun, but I was surprised at the rush of pleasure I felt, just sitting down across from her and looking into her emerald eyes.

"I'm glad you're back, Joe." she whispered, quickly squeezing my hand across the console.

But before I could respond, she was all business.

"Let me see that locator." she said, reaching out for it. I handed the object over, and spent the next few minutes explaining what little Hakase had told me about it.

I watched Jun as her fingers flew over the controls, interfacing the locator with the New God Phoenix's computer system, and downloading its data. She spent a minute analyzing the results, her nose crinkling as she thought.

I couldn't tear my eyes away.

"I've got a fix on it, Ken." she reported. "I'm transmitting the co-ordinates to Ryu now."

"Good work, Jun." Ken said, looking over at Ryu's station to see where the device was located.

"Hmmm… it looks like a direction, but no distance?" the Eagle observed.

"Yes." Jun confirmed. "That seems to be varying. Either the object is moving in a straight line, directly away from us, or the locator can't get an exact fix on distance."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to head in this direction, then." Ken replied. "Everyone keep your eyes open for signs of Galactor."

Ken didn't say what we all knew: that this could be a trap. Galactor would have to be stupid not to realize that we could have one of their locator devices. While the average goon wasn't too bright, it was fairly obvious that many of their higher-ups, such as Officer Manton, could be counted upon to behave fairly intelligently.

The mood on the Bridge was somewhat tense. Everyone was staring at their monitors, or straight ahead at the viewscreen. I looked up at Jun sitting across from me, and at the same moment she lifted her gaze as well.

Her forest green eyes met mine, and suddenly I found myself wishing that Jinpei and I could switch seats permanently.

I was glad that everyone else's seats faced away from ours. It felt almost like Jun and I were sitting across a small table at an outdoor café, instead of a control console on the Bridge of our chicken-ship.

"I missed you, Joe." she said quietly.

Her simple words tore at the core of me. She had missed me after such a short absence: not even an entire mission. How was she going to feel when I was gone forever?

But she knew that was coming. We had discussed it, and she understood the risks.

Or did she?

When we had talked… had it only been this morning? She had seemed so obstinate, insisting that there had to be another way: that Leader X could be defeated, without the use of the weapon I carried inside my body.

If only that were true.

"I missed you too, Jun." I replied softly.

I thought that I was maintaining an impassive expression, but as usual, I had underestimated Jun's ability to see past my outer defenses.

"I'm not giving up on you." she smiled. "Just like you'd never give up on me."

"I have to take things one day at a time." I replied. "That's all I can promise you."

"As long as you're planning on seeing the end of each day." Jun raised an eyebrow at me.

I had to smile. The Swan was incredibly tenacious.

"I'll do my best." I grinned.

"You'd better." she growled playfully.

"Well, if I have to face the Swan's wrath, then I know I'll be extremely motivated not to let you down." I drawled. "I wouldn't want you to wrap that Ribbon of yours around my legs."

"Oh, I have many more _interesting_ places to wrap my Ribbon." she flirted.

Despite myself, I felt my cheeks flushing. I lowered my head so that the tint of my visor would hide it, but the self-satisfied grin on Jun's face told me, louder than words, that she knew what effect she'd had on me.

Damn, this was strange. I had always been at ease with women. I had usually been the one in control, pushing the other person's buttons with knowing comments and gestures.

But that seemed a lifetime ago.

I was out of practice. Sure, I had had one or two encounters with random women, shortly after Dr. Rafael had released me from his laboratory, and before returning to the Science Ninja Team. They had been almost… therapeutic… a way to convince myself that I wasn't a monster… that I could still function among human beings.

When I thought back on it now, I realized how ineffective my methods had been. I had unconsciously fallen back on old habits, trying to recapture the way I had been… the way I had _felt_… back then… before I had been turned into this cybernetic weapon.

But I had been unable to do so. Those nameless, faceless women, with whom I had shared sexual encounters, had taught me nothing about myself.

Yet, Jun had been able to see into the full depths of my soul, that day on K3.

She had known what I thought of myself, but even more, she had known what I really was, and had seen that the two were in conflict.

Jun had taught me more about myself, than anyone else I had ever known, and now, she was teaching me about herself.

She was in a different class altogether from the girls I had always associated with. Of all of them, she alone was leaving me flustered and fumbling for words. I found myself searching for a response that would appropriately reflect how I felt, and not come up short.

I found myself unable to do so.

"Ken, I think I've found something!" Ryu called out.

Saved by the Owl. Immediately, we all turned to look at Ryu.

"What is it, Ryu?" Ken asked.

"The direction indicated by the locator originally sloped down slightly." Ryu explained. "I thought it was an error, but the further we traveled, the steeper the downward angle became."

"It's underground!" Jun exclaimed.

"It would appear so." mused Ken, concurring with Ryu's findings. "Where do you think it is, Ryu?"

"Well, based on the rate at which the downward angle has been adjusting," Ryu replied, "I'd say it's no more than a couple of miles from here."

The surrounding area was made up of sparsely populated agricultural land. There were few, if any, distinguishing characteristics to mark one point in the landscape from another.

However, as we approached the point at which the locator indicated a direction straight down, a farm came into view. It looked like any other farm. Not at all out of place in the golden landscape.

Except that it was apparently sitting right on top of Leader X's Solectran device.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

There was no sign of life in the area; only wheat crops swaying in the gentle breeze as they glistened in the late afternoon sunlight.

"This is it." Ken said grimly. "Ryu, activate Pimer, and we'll all go investigate that farm."

"Roger." replied Ryu.

Barely a minute later we were all standing on the ground as Pimer flew the New God Phoenix away. In front of us were two buildings: a barn and a farmhouse. Both had been painted red at some point in the past, but looked like they had been through the worst the weather had to offer, since then.

"Stay alert." Ken advised, "You never know where Galactor might be hiding. Jun, Jinpei and I will search the barn. Joe and Ryu, you go check out the farmhouse."

"We'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes." I replied, nodding curtly at Ken.

As the other three walked off toward the barn, Ryu and I approached the farmhouse. It appeared to be deserted: shutters drawn, no sounds emanating from within.

It looked like no one had been here for days. I would have thought years, except that the wheat fields surrounding the building appeared to be well-tended.

When we approached the front door, it was locked. We couldn't hear any sounds coming from inside the dwelling. Ryu looked at me, shrugged, then mimed a gesture of breaking the door down.

I waved him on. What the hell? We had to get in somehow. I readied a few shuriken, watching admiringly as Ryu barreled through the old wooden door, resulting in a heavy rain of sawdust and wood splinters. It always amazed me how strong Ryu was, and how much physical abuse his body could take, while the Owl barely blinked an eye.

I leapt through the now empty doorframe, three shuriken in each hand, ready for trouble.

I had been half-expecting a Galactor ambush. Instead, I was surprised to see a farmer and his wife, sitting at their dinnertable. They looked like they had just stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting, except for the expressions of shock on their faces. A cloud of sawdust hung in the air, giving mute evidence to the destruction just unleashed by the Owl.

The man stood slowly, one strap of his denim overalls undone and flapping with his movement.

"Who… who the hell are y'all?" he asked angrily.

"What, in tarnation, are y'all doin' here?" asked his wife, wiping her hands on her apron.

Ryu's face turned a bright red. His Gripper seemed almost to deflate, and instantly sagged in his hand, looking for all the world like a shiny, limp, green dishrag.

"Uh…" the Owl muttered, embarrassed, "Sorry, Sir… Sorry, Ma'am…"

"Well, sorry ain't gonna cut it, Mister!" cried the woman, coming to her feet and stalking across the room to stand in front of Ryu, her hands on her hips. "Who do y'all think is gonna fix that, there, door?"

"What're you boys doin' in them crazy costumes?" the farmer asked suspiciously. "Y'all look like some kind of demented buzzards!"

Okay, I knew that we had been the ones to break down _their_ door, but there was really no need for name-calling. _Buzzards_! I suddenly realized that the shuriken in my hands were quivering involuntarily, ready to fly.

Taking a deep breath, I lowered my hands.

"I am _not_ a buzzard." I growled. It was hardly the response I would have liked to give, but in this case it was the most I felt I could reasonably get away with.

"Uh…" Ryu offered, "We were looking for… uh… Galactor." He was so embarrassed that he practically swallowed his words.

"Tractor?" shrieked the woman, who had obviously misheard him, "You cain't have our tractor! What are you… thieves?" She stood on her tiptoes, using all five feet of her height to glare up at the shamefaced six foot tall Owl. If I hadn't been part of this bizarre scene, I would have laughed out loud at the picture they presented.

"Tractor rustlers!" she spat accusingly.

"We don't want your tractor." I tried to explain, holding up my hands again.

"Look, Ma! He's got feathers in his hands!" the farmer exclaimed. "I think he's been messing with our chickens!"

"First our tractor, and _now_ our chickens?" Ma put her hand on her heart. "I think we'd better call the Sheriff!"

Despite myself, I was just about to grin at this comedy of errors, when the farmer reached behind his chair to pull out a worn-looking shotgun.

"I think it's time for you boys to leave." he said menacingly, pointing the gun in my direction.

"Look, _Sir_," I tried to reason with the man and reign in my temper, which was beginning to flare again, "This is a mistake. We apologize for the door, and we'll make sure it gets fixed." I finished speaking through gritted teeth.

Something about this didn't ring true. Sure, these people had a right to be angry because we had broken down their door. But why hadn't we seen any sign of life from outside the farmhouse?

I glanced around surreptitiously, looking for evidence that this entire scene was, or was not, entirely on the level.

"We're sorry for messing up your lovely home." Ryu said quickly, looking for all the world like a schoolboy who had just been scolded for roughhousing with his friends.

His apology seem to deflate the woman's anger, and her hands dropped to her sides.

"Well…" she said, scratching her head in confusion. "I guess y'all seem like a decent sort."

"If you don't mind them buzzard costumes." her husband put in. "But, I guess we over-reacted a mite."

"You shore did skeer us, though!" the woman nodded, now smiling.

Their quick turnaround made me suspicious. First they had been pointing a gun at us, and now they were being almost friendly.

"I can imagine." I replied quietly.

"Would you boys like some dinner?" the woman offered, gesturing to her table where large plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn were displayed. "I made plenty!"

"Sure!" Ryu accepted eagerly. "Everything looks delicious!"

I mentally smacked myself on the forehead. I couldn't believe that guy! I put a hand on Ryu's chest, stopping the Owl from making his way to the table.

"What are you thinking, Ryu?" I hissed, under my breath.

"I'm hungry!" Ryu protested, giving me a sheepish look.

I shook my head, suddenly longing for the days when we didn't have Pimer, and Ryu had had to be left behind on the ship.

"It could be dangerous!" I insisted. "Remember those bananas?"

"But that was on Katse's Killer Isle of Death!" Ryu protested. "These seem like nice people." He went to reach for a proffered basket of biscuits.

"Besides," he continued, "these look like ordinary biscuits to me!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a flash of movement. Surreptitiously, I turned my head slightly, noticing a man in a green uniform peeking out from behind a door to another room.

The man was pointing a rifle at Ryu's head.

In an instant, a feather shuriken flew from my fingers, embedding itself in the man's throat. The green-suited goon fell forward, into the room, collapsing on top of his weapon.

"Awwww……" Ryu moaned, dropping the hand reaching for the biscuit and raising the other one, that held his Gripper.

Instantly, a dozen goons leapt out of the woodwork, firing at us with their rifles. The farmer and his wife ducked underneath their dinnertable to avoid the hail of bullets, as I whirled into action.

The remaining five shuriken in my hands took out the goons closest to me, while I roundhouse kicked another one in the side. Ryu performed his standard bull-rush maneuver, bowling over and trampling four goons, before slapping another in the face with his Gripper. The last one was hit simultaneously by punches from both of us.

I turned to survey the room and the resulting damage, only to realize that the farmer was standing again, holding his weapon directly at my throat.

"Iff'n you think this here's a normal shotgun, you've got another think comin'." he smirked.

His wife had pulled a flower out of the vase in the middle of the dinner table. It looked suspiciously like a Devilstar rose bomb.

Without hesitation, I ducked, sweeping my leg out to trip the man, causing him to land sprawling on his back, just as I fired at him with my sonic gun.

Meanwhile, Ryu's fist shot out, slamming into the face of the woman. She collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Normally I don't like to hit a lady…" muttered Ryu.

"Devilstars _aren't_ ladies." I growled, picking up the woman's rose bomb and piercing her heart with it. I had never forgotten that it had been a Devilstar who had killed my parents. I made it a point to destroy any of their number I came across.

"I thought there weren't any Devilstars, anymore." Ryu said, confused.

"I've done my best to eliminate them all." I stated viciously. "I guess this one escaped my notice, before now."

Our bracelets began to beep.

"Joe, Ryu, where are you?" came Ken's voice. "You're late to the rendezvous. You guys aren't goofing off, are you?"

I raised my eyes to look at Ryu.

"Do you want to tell him, or should I?" I grinned.

88888

"Well," smirked Jun, her eyes sweeping the interior of the farmhouse, "I guess you guys were having fun."

"Not quite." Ryu muttered.

"Oh?" Jun raised an eyebrow at the Owl.

"I didn't get to try the biscuits." Ryu explained, his face glum. He picked up the now bullet-riddled basket that had held the bread, then let it drop from his fingers, to the floor.

"This is not the time to be thinking about food, Ryu!" Jinpei lectured the Owl, his chest puffing out with his own self-importance.

"Jinpei's right." Ken replied seriously. "With this many goons in here, there _must_ be a Galactor Base close by."

"Everyone, look for an entrance." the Eagle ordered.

We all spread out and began looking around the farmhouse for anything that could conceal a secret entrance. I was in the process of knocking on the walls, searching for hollow spots, when Ryu called out.

"Hey, guys! I think I found something!"

We all hurried back to the main room, only to find Ryu on his hands and knees, under what was left of the kitchen table.

"Where?" Ken asked excitedly.

"Here, under the table!" Ryu grinned proudly. He pulled away the rug underneath the table, and indicated a large square underneath.

"That looks like a trap door!" Ken grinned. "Good job, Ryu!"

"Hey, Ryu…" Jinpei looked suspicious, "What were you doing under the table, anyhow?"

"Uh… looking for the secret entrance to the Galactor Base." Ryu said, a little too quickly.

"So, why are there crumbs all over your face?" Jinpei asked slyly.

Ryu quickly brushed at his face, turning red as he did so. Jun began giggling, and Jinpei quickly joined in. Even I couldn't resist cracking a smile.

But not the Eagle.

"Would you guys stop joking around?" Ken asked in an irritated tone. "We need to open this door!"

The door was much heavier than it looked, and it took Ken, myself, and Ryu to open it. Eventually we had it open, throwing it to the ground with a crash.

"So much for sneaking up on Galactor." Jinpei huffed.

"I didn't see _you_ helping." I pointed out. "Besides, with all of these goons up here, it's pretty likely they already know we're here."

"What good could I do?" Jinpei protested. "If the mighty Gatchaman, the Incredible Hulk, and the Six Million Dollar Man couldn't open it, I don't think I'd be of much help." He flexed his skinny arms to emphasize his point.

"What is this, here?" Jun asked, ignoring our banter. She pointed at a small panel of buttons on the underside of the trapdoor. Carefully, she considered the display, then pressed one of them.

A soft humming sound came from the hole that had been underneath the trapdoor. We all edged back, readying our weapons and preparing for the worst.

A slim, silver tube rose up, out of the floor. It was about ten feet high, and when it was fully above ground, its side opened up to reveal an empty interior.

Jinpei looked cautiously inside the hollow cylinder.

"I think it's an elevator." he shrugged.

"Should we get in?" Jun asked.

"I don't see much else we can do." Ken replied. "But we all need to stay alert."

We got into the elevator. It was a tight fit, but we all made it. I found myself pressed uncomfortably against Ryu's bulk, but the soft, yielding form of the Swan on my other side was a welcome presence in my personal space.

As the doors closed, Jun looked into my eyes, giving me a slow wink and a soft smile. For the briefest of moments, I almost felt like the two of us were alone, locked in some kind of intimate embrace by choice, and not by circumstance.

"Do you think this is some kind of trap?" Jinpei asked Ken, bringing me back to the reality of our situation.

"You always have to be careful, with Galactor." Ken replied.

The instant he spoke, the elevator jerked, and we began to free-fall, plunging deep into the ground.

"Damn!" yelled Ken.

I grabbed Ryu's arms and heaved myself up to stand on the Owl's shoulders. From there I was easily able to reach the top of the elevator, where I began tearing away the metal ceiling with my gloved hands.

It hadn't been that long ago when such a display of my cybernetic powers would have made me extremely uncomfortable, but at that moment, all I could think of was saving my teammates… saving Jun.

The moment the opening was big enough, I leapt out onto the roof of the elevator. I thrust my hand down into the car, grabbing the Swan's forearm and yanking her up and out of the cylinder. I used the momentum of the moving elevator to throw her upward and away from the car. From the corner of my eye I saw her grab a ledge on the wall of the shaft, even as we continued to plummet toward the bottom. I reached in again, this time pulling out the Swallow and throwing him upward in a similar fashion.

Next came Ken, who leapt up next to me on the elevator roof the instant he was outside, reaching for Ryu.

"I'm stuck!" the Owl cried. Indeed, as usual his bulk was too much for the size of the hole through which the rest of us had escaped. I tore away more of the ceiling until he was free. The three of us leapt off together, grabbing onto the edge of the elevator shaft, only seconds before the car crashed in a cloud of smoke and flames.

I covered my mouth, coughing from the smoke, but as it cleared I was glad to see that we were all uninjured.

"I guess that answers the question, of whether or not Galactor knows we're here." said Ryu grimly.

"Where are Jun and Jinpei?" Ken asked, looking upward. The shaft was pretty dark, despite the flaming remnants of the elevator car below us, and we could not see them.

"This is G2. Come in G3… G4…" I said into my bracelet.

There was no response.

I looked at Ken, and he nodded.

"We're going back up, to look for them." he ordered.

I grunted, climbing upward a few feet. I reached for Ken's hand, then catapulted him over my head, literally throwing him up the shaft. He landed about forty feet above me. I then performed the same maneuver with Ryu, only when he reached the Eagle, Ken threw Ryu up again, sending him up another forty feet. I climbed up to Ken, who threw me to Ryu, and the Owl sent me up again.

We had climbed a few hundred feet upward in this fashion, when I saw a tunnel intersecting the shaft at a ninety-degree angle. It looked like some kind of maintenance passageway.

I waited for Ken and Ryu to join me, and we all agreed that it was our best lead, so we crawled out of the shaft and into the tunnel.

On the surface, the only sound was the quiet hum of machinery, but with my enhanced hearing, I realized that I was picking up the sounds of fighting, and sonic gunfire.

"That way." I pointed, indicating that Ken and Ryu should follow me. For once, Ken didn't argue with my directive.

The closer we got, the more intense the sounds of battle became. I could tell that Ken and Ryu could hear it now too, and instinctively we all quickened our pace.

The passageway turned left sharply, and we skidded around the corner, our boot heels scraping on the metallic floor.

An incredible scene met my eyes. The Swan and the Swallow were literally being swarmed by dozens of Galactor troops. Jun held her Aurora Ribbon in one hand and her sonic gun in the other, using both simultaneously to fell goons approaching from all sides of her. Jinpei threw his Rebound Ball at the floor, where it bounced and began to ricochet between the heads of various goons. The Swallow then became a blur of arms and legs, fighting off attackers from the other direction.

Ken threw his Cutting Saucer around the edge of the mob, taking out another group of green-suited Galactors, while I threw a barrage of feather shuriken at a fresh batch of troops approaching the scene. Ryu employed his Gripper, beating a path through the goons, toward the Swallow.

I drop kicked a goon in the head, then whirled to land a flurry of blows upon another soldier trying to attack me from behind. As I turned back, out of the corner of my eye I saw an energy blast from a goon's rifle heading right toward the Swallow's back.

"No!" cried Ryu, who was too far away to help.

But the Swan was not. She too had noticed the attack and threw herself at Jinpei, pushing him out of harm's way.

The energy blast caught Jun full in the chest, blackening her body and leaving an ugly, smoking circle on the soft pink of her uniform. She lay, unmoving, on the ground at the Swallow's feet.

Jinpei screamed, pulling out his sonic gun and holding off the attacking goons until Ryu arrived at their position. The Owl bull-rushed the approaching Galactors, knocking them into the metallic walls and sending them sprawling.

Jun was hurt, and I was desperate to know how she was. But I couldn't allow myself to become distracted. I continued to fight, letting out a howl of frustration, my movements becoming a blur. My arms, my legs, even my head, shot out, felling as many Galactors as they could reach. I couldn't go to Jun until they were all down, and so I found my body going into overdrive: dispatching my enemy as quickly as possible.

One thought ran through my mind, over and over.

Jun _had_ to make it. I didn't know if I could go on, without her.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Finally, I had defeated the soldiers surrounding me, and I stopped, my chest heaving with my recent exertions. Blood dripped down off my wings and onto the pile of green-suited bodies at my feet. Ken and Ryu were taking care of the few remaining goons, so I quickly ran over to where the Swan lay, her head gently cradled in the Swallow's lap.

"How bad is it?" I asked Jinpei, my voice nearly cracking. I did my best to keep my worry from my face, but the Swallow somehow understood the depths of my concern.

Jinpei looked at me, tears running down his cheeks.

"I can't get her to wake up!" he sobbed.

My heart nearly stopped at his words, but I forced myself to calm down. I had medical training, and it was up to me to do what I could for Jun. I reached for her wrist, only to find that my hand was shaking. I took a few deep breaths as I felt for her pulse.

After what seemed like an eternity, I found it. It was weak, fluttering, erratic… but she was alive.

"She has a pulse." I informed the Swallow. "She's alive."

"That's good, isn't it?' Jinpei asked hopefully.

"It's a hell of a lot better than no pulse." I muttered. Just because there was a pulse didn't mean that Jun was out of the woods. Those energy weapons were nasty. The outer skin burned, but the true damage was inside. It was this characteristic that made energy blasters a weapon of choice for Galactor: they could force their way through almost any kind of armor or protective clothing, to wreck havoc with a person's insides.

Without medical equipment, I had no way of knowing what had been done to Jun's internal organs, or what kind of internal bleeding she was suffering from.

"She needs to get back to the Medical Bay, on the New God Phoenix." I told Jinpei.

"Is it safe to move her?" he asked nervously.

"If we don't move her, she could die." I said bluntly. I didn't see any point in sugar-coating it for the kid. He needed to know what was happening.

Tears rolled silently down Jinpei's cheeks, as he bowed his head over the one in his lap.

"Why did you do that, Onechan?" he sobbed, "Why did you have to push me out of the way? I would have been all right. You didn't have to do it…"

He looked up at me, and I could see the fear etched on his face.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, desperately hoping to impart some calm into his body. But how could I do that, when my own emotions were in turmoil?

I looked down at Jun's face. She seemed so peaceful… almost as if she were merely asleep. I thought of how close we had become, over the last few days, and how if she didn't pull through, we might never truly understand what was growing between us.

I reached out, lightly touching her cheek with my fingertips.

"Just this morning, Jun, you told me that either one of us could die, at any time." I whispered. "But… I can't deal with that. I'm…"

I was weak. I couldn't bear the thought of being without the one person who understood me… who could see inside to the person I was, past the cold exterior created by circumstance and Dr. Rafael.

I took a deep breath. The reality of a life without Jun whirled through my head. I forgot where we were, ignoring Jinpei, and the piles of green-uniformed bodies surrounding us.

All that mattered was Jun.

"You can't leave me, Jun." I insisted, a tear falling from my eye, only to splash onto my wings. "You've got to hold on."

Everything else had been pushed aside. At that moment, Jun had become my entire world.

The world was shattered when the Swallow spoke.

"You really do care for her, Joe." he said, in an awed voice.

I couldn't look at him. I could hardly believe that I had just laid myself bare, like that. These were the kinds of feelings and thoughts I rarely admitted to myself, much less to anyone else. And yet, I had been compelled to show them to Jun… at that moment I would have done _anything_ to ensure that she would be all right.

I turned away, only to come face to face with Ken and Ryu. I hadn't even realized that they had stopped fighting. The expression on Ken's face told me that he had heard my words as well, and for a moment, I knew he saw how I was feeling as well.

"What's important, right now, is Jun." I said, collecting myself.

"You're going to be just fine." I said, more to myself, than to Jun.

"Joe?"

The voice was soft, and fragile, but it had definitely come from the Swan.

Relief flooded through my body like a crashing tidal wave.

"I'm here, Jun."

"Did you need me for something?" she smiled weakly.

"Yes." I smiled back. "I need to you to hold on for me. We'll be getting you some medical attention as soon as we can."

"Onechan, you're awake!" Jinpei grinned.

"Of course I am." Jun chided him gently. "It would take a lot more than one Galactor to bring me down." Her attempt at bravado was ruined as she gasped in pain, her body jerking slightly.

"You need to take it easy, Jun." I reminded her, concerned. "The energy blast has likely caused a lot of internal damage."

"I can keep going." Jun insisted, struggling to sit up.

"You shouldn't do that…" I began.

"Yes, she should." Ken interrupted me.

I turned to look at the Eagle, noting the grim expression on his face.

"We can't get her out of here, now." Ken said resolutely. "We have to keep going."

"What?" Jinpei yelled at Ken.

I merely sat there, my fists clenching in anger.

"We need to find that device." Ken replied calmly. "We can't go back now."

"Fine." the Swallow huffed. "I'll stay here with her, then."

"I'd rather not leave anyone behind." Ken pointed out. "We _all_ need to keep going."

"I can do it, Ken." Jun said quietly, holding her head in her hands.

"I know you can, Jun." the Eagle encouraged her.

I was ready to smack my fist into his face. I couldn't believe that Ken was being so callous about Jun's welfare.

I held out my hand to the Swan, and she gave me a grateful smile as she took it. I could see the tightening at the edges of her eyes as she rose, but she managed to stand, then stared straight at Ken.

"I'm ready, Commander." she said, in a strong voice.

Ken nodded at her, as if her injury didn't bother him at all.

"Our mission is to recover the device." he told us. "We must do that, at _all_ costs."

The Eagle stared straight at me, daring me to challenge his words. I glared at him, expressing my anger, but remained silent. My hands trembled, longing to connect with his jaw, but they stayed at my sides. I was tempted to mutiny, but I knew that it wouldn't do anyone any good.

Just as the Swan was driven by her teammates' welfare, the Eagle was driven by duty. This wasn't the first time he had put the mission before the team, willing to let one of us die, to accomplish his goals.

And it certainly wasn't the first time I had wanted to belt him for it. A memory flashed across my mind: standing in a field of Jigokiller flowers, hearing Ken agree that they had to be destroyed, even though Jun was trapped inside one of them. I recalled how good it had felt to hit him then, and how Jinpei and Ryu had backed me up.

But in the end, Ken had done his duty, and Hakase had prevailed upon me to accept my Commander's decision, practically forcing me to take part in this terrible act. I recalled pressing the button to send the bird missile into that field of killer plants, damning myself even as I did so.

It had been the protective suit that had saved Jun from the flames, but I knew that I had been granted a chance: a chance to make things right. I had promised myself, that I would never let Ken force me into making that choice again.

I swore that following him now, didn't mean breaking that promise to myself.

At this point, there wasn't much I could do, except watch out for Jun, and make sure that she made it through this alive.

At that moment, I didn't care if Ken survived the mission or not.

88888

We continued to make our way down the maintenance corridor, and saw no further sign of Galactor personnel. That in itself made me nervous, because now that they knew we were here, Galactor should be throwing everything they had at us.

Still, I appreciated the chance for Jun to recover herself, a bit. I had offered her my arm to lean on, but she had refused it. I could see her stumbling when she thought none of us were looking. Jinpei, Ryu and I cast concerned glances in her direction every so often, and we closed ranks around her. Anyone who wanted to get to Jun, would have to go through the three of us.

Ken was about ten feet in front of the rest of us, scouting the passageway and leading us deeper into the Galactor base. Every so often, he stopped to look at the locator I held, to see if we were still moving in the correct direction to find the Solectran device. Since the locator pretty much pointed straight down, we weren't making much progress traveling through perfectly horizontal corridors, and I could tell that this was frustrating the hell out of Ken.

He wasn't the only one. All I wanted to do was find the damn thing, and get Jun out of there.

After what seemed like hours, but was likely only about fifteen minutes, we found a metallic stairwell. It had a utilitarian appearance, fitting right in with the maintenance corridor, yet somehow, it just felt _wrong_.

I began to get a strange feeling. It took me a moment to realize why it was vaguely familiar. It felt somewhat like the sensation I had had previously, when spying on Leader X, a couple of weeks before I had rejoined the team.

Dr. Rafael had explained to me that as party of my cybernetic design, he had programmed my mind to recognize when I was near X, so that I could find him, and complete my ultimate purpose.

The sensation I had now made me feel like X was close by, but not in the same way that he had been all those months ago. It was more like… an echo… of that previous feeling.

Still, it didn't bode well.

"I don't like this." I said to Ken. "I think Leader X is nearby. If he's controlling that device…"

"We have to prevent him from using it." insisted Ken.

"Even if it means walking into a trap?" I asked him bluntly.

"Yes." Ken nodded. "We have to find the device, and destroy it."

"What?" Jinpei exclaimed, "Dr. Nambu said that we should recover it, if possible."

"I don't think we'll be able to do that." Ken shook his head resignedly. "Joe's probably right: Leader X has the device and is trying to use it. He's not going to let us have it. I suspect X would destroy it, before letting us take it."

"Then we have to make him _think_ we're going to take it." Jun suggested, in a weak voice.

"I don't care who destroys that thing." Ken stated, "But it has to be done."

"Now," the Eagle turned to me, "Is that thing still pointing down?" he gestured to the locator in my hand.

I nodded silently.

"Then down we go." Ken pointed at the stairwell.

I didn't like it, but in this case, Ken was right. What other choice did we have, except to go back?

I didn't want to think about how that other choice had been denied to Jun.

We began descending further into the ground, our boot heels clunking softly on the metallic steps. The sound echoed through the stairwell. There was no way that Gel Sadra didn't realize that we were coming.

This was definitely a trap. It was frustrating that I couldn't see any course of action, other than to walk right into it.

Jun seemed to be doing a little better, holding onto the handrails. I didn't want to think of how she was going to get out of here. I resolved to carry her up these steps myself, if I had to, to make sure that she made it back to the New God Phoenix in one piece.

At some point, the metallic walls of the stairwell gave way to rock. It appeared that this shaft had been carved out of solid rock. The rock itself was strange too: shot through with strange golden and reddish-brown threads, which only got more numerous, the further we descended.

"What's all of that funky stuff on the walls?" Jinpei asked.

"It looks like some kind of hydrothermal magnetite." Jun offered.

"Huh?" the Swallow appeared confused.

"Modified forms of gold and copper." the Swan explained, a little breathless form the physical stress she was under. "They have strong magnetic and conductive properties."

There was something about Jun's hypothesis that made me uncomfortable, but before I could think too much about it, we reached the bottom of the steps. In front of the steps was a single, metallic door.

"Uh, Commander," Ryu seemed almost embarrassed to be saying anything, "doesn't this seem a little too _convenient_ to you? I mean, we find only _one_ way down, and there's nothing between the place we came from, and here. No other floors, or other parts to this base. And now, here's this door. Are we really going to go through it?"

"I agree." Ken replied calmly. "If you have another suggestion, I'd like to hear it."

Ryu shrugged silently, indicating that he had nothing further to offer.

I looked down at the locator.

"The device is no longer below us."

Everyone turned to look at me.

"It's in that direction." I said, pointing at the door.

"Then we go in." Ken ordered.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

By this point, even Ken had acknowledged that Galactor knew we were here, so we decided that subterfuge was unnecessary.

The door was locked, but that didn't stop us. One blast with a sonic gun easily disabled the lock, and Ken opened it, giving us a glimpse into the large chamber beyond.

The room was dimly lit, and from what little we could see, appeared to be completely empty.

The entire situation reeked of a setup. I move closer to Jun, noting Jinpei and Ryu flanking me. We effectively created a circle around her, while Ken strode boldly in front.

As we walked into the room, bright lights suddenly flooded the area. Gel Sadra stood at the opposite end of the large chamber from the door through which we had just entered. Beside her was a tall, thin table, on which was resting the Solectran device. The chamber had been carved out of the same rock as the stairwell, only the mineral threads on the walls were much more concentrated in this area.

An army of goons lined the walls of the chamber. At least a hundred rifles were aimed on our position.

"Welcome, Gatchaman." cackled Gel Sadra. "We've been expecting you." she said, gesturing to the soldiers surrounding us.

"I could say the same, Gel Sadra." Ken replied.

Normally, I would probably have gone up to stand next to Ken and confront the Galactor leader with him, but in this instance, I let him speak for all of us. Jun wasn't in any shape for another fight; I wanted to keep her out of the spotlight, and draw attention away from her. The best way to do that seemed to be encouraging everyone to focus on Gatchaman, and only on Gatchaman.

So I remained silent.

"Why so formal, Gatchaman?" Gel Sadra sneered. "I've seen your face. You have no need to wear that ridiculous helmet anymore."

"She's not one to talk about silly headgear." Ryu chuckled quietly.

"Shut up!" I hissed. The Owl immediately fell silent.

"We're not here to exchange pleasantries." Ken fumed. I could see that Gel Sadra's reminder of his no-longer-secret identity rankled him.

"Give us the device." the Eagle demanded.

Gel Sadra laughed in her usual high-pitched, childlike manner.

"Well, Gatchaman, that's _exactly_ what we're going to do." she smirked. Slowly, she raised her arms above her head, and looked up toward the ceiling.

"Leader X!" she called, "We are ready!"

Instantly, I sensed X's presence in the room. In a way, it was completely overwhelming, but in another way, there was something lacking. As before, it was as if he were here… and yet, he wasn't.

Instinctively, I pulled myself closer to Jun, attempting to protect her from an unknown threat.

"Welcome, Science Ninja Team." Leader X intoned. His voice was insidious, worming its way into my brain, even though the actual volume of his words was quite low. The Solectran device hummed on the table, setting my nerves on fire.

Glancing around, I could see that X was having a similar effect on the others, even Ken. Jun, in her weakened state, seemed especially overwhelmed. I longed to put my arms around her, but refused to show Galactor any chink in her armor.

"It pleases me to know, that you will be the first humans to experience the effect of my Psionitron device." X said in a smug tone.

"The only thing we will experience is victory!" Ken growled defiantly. I had to admit, I was impressed with the amount of resistance he was displaying, to whatever Leader X was doing to us.

"We will destroy Galactor!" Ken insisted. The impact of his words was somewhat diminished by the cry of pain he let escape as he spoke.

"You don't comprehend the full power of my Psionitron." Leader X boasted. "I am miles away from you at the moment, and yet, it allows me to manifest myself in this place, and I am stronger than I have ever been before!"

Finally, I understood what was happening, within my own body. I had been receiving signals telling me that X was close… and yet, it wasn't the same. That was because he wasn't truly… physically… in this place, but at the same time, he was present. My mind reeled with the implications. If X could manifest himself far away from his physical location, I might never find him. And it was obvious, from this encounter, that I had to be in close _physical_ proximity to X, in order to activate the weapon inside my chest.

I could see the others' knees buckling. Jun fell first, collapsing to the floor as if her legs had suddenly turned to water. My heart cried out for her, but I couldn't run to her aid. I was too busy dealing with the effect Leader X was having on my own body.

Jinpei's legs gave out, shortly followed by Ryu's. Ken was still standing, but I could see that it was taking a tremendous effort for him to do so. I had locked my joints in place, relying on the strength of my metallic framework to keep me upright.

"You can't defeat us!" Ken gasped, his hands clutching at his helmet as another wave of pain washed over us.

"Oh, I don't want to _defeat_ you, Gatchaman." Leader X laughed, "I want to _control_ you!"

I could do nothing more than gape at the Solectran alien in horror.

"Once the Science Ninja Team is under Galactor's control, _nothing_ will stop my plans for the… conquest… of the Earth!" X smirked.

I didn't have the time to reflect on X's hesitation, before choosing his words. A blinding light flashed across the room. It was uncomfortably familiar. I remembered a similar light flashing from the device after it had been dropped on the Bridge of the New God Phoenix. The others screamed, grabbing at their helmets as X tried to force his way into their minds.

I felt him try to enter my mind as well… but he didn't complete the act. It was as if he were waiting outside a door, to be invited in, just like a mythical vampire.

Ken had fallen to his knees now, and I was the only one who remained standing. Again, the surge of pain coursed through my body. Ken, Jinpei and Ryu cried out. I could barely imagine how much more X's power was affecting Jun, in her already injured state. She made a sound of utter agony, before completely blacking out.

Jun's scream echoed in my mind, blocking out the physical pain to which I was being subjected. The emotional impact of that sound was far worse to me than anything X could do. So I did the only thing I could.

I refused X entry into my mind.

"You won't get away with this, X." I spat.

"Ah, the G2…" X said in a smug tone. "You think that because you escaped Galactor once before, that you can do it again, now. I will show you how wrong you are!"

Again, I felt that presence, but it was just outside of my mind. Vaguely, I sensed X attempting to compel me to bow down to him, but I brushed the suggestion away as if it were an annoying mosquito.

It almost seemed as if X himself were surrounding me… like a blanket trying to smother any resistance I might give. I felt myself suffocating under his presence, but I began to push back. I knew, instinctively, that I had to keep the alien entity out of my mind.

It was the only way I could save Jun.

"You think that you can defeat me, G2, but you cannot." X said. I noticed that his tone was no longer quite so smug. It almost seemed… strained? As if he were making an effort.

"Surrender, now, before your brain is destroyed by my power!" X demanded.

"I will _not_ surrender." I growled.

"You actually think you can win!" X laughed, but the sound was forced.

I knew then that I had the upper hand. X had expected to control me easily, as he had done with my teammates. I wasn't entirely certain why he hadn't been successful at this, but I was going to press my advantage.

Without warning, a tidal wave of invisible power crashed over my body. My limbs thrashed, but my mind remained strong. I used my thoughts to push the attack back, further and further, out of my head.

As my consciousness fought X's attack, it left my body, and suddenly I realized that the power with which I was battling was not a blanket; rather, it was a multitude of tiny pinpoint attacks.

Without understand how or what I was doing, I followed those individual points, following numerous pathways away from my body and into the walls.

In a moment of clarity, I realized that my consciousness was now inside the threads of hydrothermal magnetite in the rock. X was using their conductive properties to magnify his power! If I followed those threads, eventually I would reach the source of the attacks: the Psionitron device.

With this realization, I continued to counter-attack, pushing back more and more, making slow but inexorable progress toward my goal.

I was momentarily distracted when Ken, Jinpei and Ryu cried out again. Jun was beyond any sound.

I lost ground in my mental battle with X, in my concern for my teammates.

"You _may_ be able to fight me," X said angrily, "but not before I destroy your teammates! They will die for your resistance!"

I knew, then, that I would never reach the device in time, attacking X in this manner. I forced my arm to move, pulling out my sonic gun.

I pointed it straight at the device.

"No!" screeched X, "You cannot! If you do, they will all die!"

The Eagle, the Swallow, and the Owl cried out again. The Swan's body twitched and jerked, as if pulled by invisible puppet strings.

X was threatening to kill them, but I knew then that they wouldn't survive, no matter what I did.

Unless I could stop X from attacking them, for once and for all.

I aimed my gun.

"I don't understand!" X wailed, "You should not be able to resist the Psionitron! But somehow, you are…"

"I am immune." I said calmly, suddenly comprehending why I was able to do this. I silently thanked Dr. Pandora for her diligence. She had set up a system in my mind, which cancelled out the effect of the Psionitron, causing me to recover from my temporary paralysis.

Apparently, it was able to defend against even stronger attacks, made through the same device.

"I will destroy your precious Science Ninja Team!" X threatened.

"Go to Hell."

I depressed the trigger on my sonic gun, falling backward as the Psionitron device exploded in a shower of sparks and flames.

The sense of X's presence vanished immediately, and the magnetite threads in the walls began to vibrate.

I had a bad feeling about this.

Apparently, so did everyone else. Gel Sadra, who had, until now, been silently watching Leader X at work, ran screeching from the room, presumably for an escape pod. The Galactor goons panicked, scrambling to get out.

"Pimer!" I yelled, using my bracelet to contact the New God Phoenix, "We need a pickup, _now_! Lock onto my signal, and use the Vulcan Cannons to blast your way through to us, if you have to!"

I received an acknowledgement from the robot just as large chunks of rock began to fall into the chamber.

Ken, Jinpei and Ryu were moaning, but sitting up. Jun lay, motionless, on the ground.

"We have to get out of here!" I yelled at them, forcing them to their feet. I lifted the unconscious Swan into my arms, then took off for the exit, the others close behind. A dozen falling boulders made me alter my course, but I was not fast enough to avoid the rocks completely. A large chunk of the ceiling was coming straight for me.

I twisted my body, hunching over Jun, taking the impact on my shoulder, deflecting it away from the Swan. It hurt like hell, but at this point that was the least of my worries. I began moving again, as fast as I could.

I forced myself not to look at Jun. I was afraid of what I would see. She had been in bad shape, before we had ever entered that chamber, and now… I didn't want to contemplate what kind of condition she was in.

I urged every ounce of strength I could from my cyborg body, pulling ahead of the others, taking the steps three at a time.

In a minute that felt like an eternity, I saw the maintenance corridor just above me. Putting on a burst of speed, I arrived just in time to encounter a blast of weapons fire coming through the ceiling.

Instinctively, I threw myself at the wall, attempting to shelter Jun from any debris that might fall our way. The dust cleared, and as Ken, Jinpei and Ryu caught up to me, I turned to look at what was left of the passageway.

The nose of the new God Phoenix protruded into the Galctor base.

I had never imagined that I could be so damned happy to see that chicken beak.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The instant I was back on the New God Phoenix, I ran to the Medical Bay with the unconscious Swan. I laid her down gently, and began a standard examination, after which I hooked her up to the medical scanners, searching for any damage left by the energy blast she had been hit with, while trying to protect Jinpei.

The internal scans revealed that the blast had severely burned one of her lungs. No wonder she had had trouble breathing! I did what I could for her, but gave a sigh of relief. Her injuries were bad, but didn't appear to be life-threatening, as I had initially feared.

Unconsciously, my mind registered that the New God Phoenix had taken off, and was likely headed on a course back to G-Town, but I paid little attention. My thoughts, my worries, my complete focus, were on Jun.

I was taken aback when I heard Ken speak.

"How is she doing?" the Eagle asked.

I looked up, to see Ken standing in the doorway. I hadn't even heard him approach. Of course he _was_ the White Shadow, and all that jazz, but I suspected that my focus on Jun was to blame for my obliviousness.

"She'll make it." I said coldly. Certainly, it looked like Jun would be fine, but things could easily have been worse, especially after Ken had practically ordered her to continue on with the mission. I wasn't entirely sure I was able to forgive the Eagle for that.

"I'm glad." Ken sighed, taking off his helmet and running his hand through his hair.

"Are you?" I spat. "You seemed just fine with dragging her along on this mission, when she could have been dying, for all we knew."

I hadn't meant to say so much, but my temper had gotten the better of me. It was typical of me that I was able to hide all of my emotions, except anger.

"You _know_ why I had to do that." Ken said, his voice full of frustration. "We _had_ to complete the mission. Allowing Leader X to keep that device would have been allowing Galactor to take over the world. I remembered how helpless I felt in the Himalayas, when X used his mental powers on us, and how terrifying it was."

"I realize, now, that I made the right choice, after experiencing what we did, just an hour ago." Ken justified his actions. "I knew Jun was hurt, damn it, but I couldn't let my concern for her jeopardize the mission: I couldn't risk failure, because we had to leave people behind."

"You and your damned duty!" I shouted. "How far is it going to take us, Ken? To the grave? How much are we going to sacrifice on behalf of the 'great' Gatchaman?"

"We are _all_ willing to sacrifice our lives, to defeat Galactor, Joe." Ken pointed out. "I thought you understood that."

"But that's _our_ choice to make." I replied stubbornly. "Not yours. You didn't even give Jun the _option_."

"She could have said no, if she had wanted to." Ken insisted.

"You know Jun as well as I do." I said. "She would kill herself on a mission, without hesitation, if you ordered her to."

"Then she _did_ have a choice, didn't she?" Ken argued. "She _chose_ to do what I wanted her to. And she knew _why_ I asked her to keep going. _She_ had no problem with it. _You're_ the one with the problem, Joe."

I pounded my fist on the counter, causing a container of supplies laying on top of it to fall and crash to the ground. As much as I hated it, the Eagle was right. If she were awake right now, Jun would be defending Ken, and his decision to force her to accompany us.

What I really resented was the fact the Ken had put her life in danger, and been so callous about it. He had taken Jun's unswerving loyalty for granted, instead of cherishing it for the true gift it was.

Yet, what had I really expected? Ken was a slave to duty, and had always been that way. He had always taken Jun for granted. Nothing about the Eagle had changed.

_I_ was the one who had changed.

I no longer accepted that just because things had always been this way, they had to remain so. It pained me to see Ken ordering Jun around, without a thought for how his decisions might impact her.

Worst of all, I realized that it wasn't just this mission that was bothering me. I resented the way Ken had been treating Jun off duty: as if she were his _property_. I recalled our conversation about a week before, where he had told me, in no uncertain terms, to leave her alone.

The physical and emotional stress of the past twenty-four hours pressed down heavily on my mind, and I said the first thing that came into my head, before I could stop the words from being uttered.

"My problem is _you_, Ken."

The Eagle's face bore a look of shock, as if this were the last thing he had expected to hear from me. Hell, it was the last thing I had intended to say.

And yet, the words had been uttered, and there was no taking them back, now.

"We've always had our differences, Joe…" Ken said, trying to compose a response to my statement.

"And we have our own way of resolving those differences." I growled, gripping the edges of the counter so tightly, I heard the plastic coating on it crack. I was very close to losing my temper altogether.

I remembered Ken and myself nearly beating each other bloody in an alleyway, when he had been trying to get me to open up about my headaches. I recalled punching him in the face when he had agreed to burn the Jigokillers, knowing that Jun was inside one of them. The memory of Ken hitting me in the jaw, for firing a bird missile against orders, flashed through my mind. I also saw myself throwing the Eagle over my head, after he had belted me, that day in the desert when I finally revealed to my former teammates that I was still 'alive'.

We _definitely_ had our own way of resolving our differences. I was tempted to resort to it right now, but I knew that with my cybernetic enhancements, it wouldn't be a fair contest. No matter how good it would feel, it wouldn't accomplish anything.

But damn, it was tempting. I satisfied myself by slamming my fist into the tritanium-steel wall, leaving a dent six inches deep. I imagined that it was the Eagle's stomach into which I had plunged my fist.

Ken winced, perhaps subconsciously understanding my thoughts. I took a deep breath, then turned around to face the Eagle.

I knew that _this_ time, we had to _talk_ things out.

And that was much more difficult.

"This… this is about Jun." Ken said quietly. "Isn't it?"

I looked over at the unconscious Swan. I had had to remove her helmet, and her ebony hair spilled over her shoulders, and off of the examination table. Even in repose, she was heartbreakingly beautiful, and I was taken aback by the emotional response she evoked in me.

I turned to regard my commanding officer, looking him straight in the eye.

"Yes." I growled.

"I… I heard what you said, Joe," Ken said, "in the Galactor base, after she had been hurt."

I glared at the Eagle, waiting for him to finish his thought.

"You…" Ken looked as if he were going to say something, then changed his approach mid-thought, his countenance slowly becoming one of anger.

"You promised that you were going to stay away from her." he accused me.

"I believe, what I said, was that I didn't intend to get close to her." I clarified. "And I didn't."

"But it happened anyway." Ken pressed.

"Yes." I admitted. "When I was injured, she came to visit me and…. we talked…"

I was finding it difficult to talk to Ken about this. It had never been easy for me to open up to him, and this subject was especially prickly. Perhaps my original instinct to belt him had been the right one. My fists clenched from within my folded arms.

"Obviously, you did more than talk." Ken steamed.

"Obviously, you're full of it." I growled. "We talked." I conveniently chose to ignore that fiery kiss we had shared. Ken didn't need to know about that.

"We… we learned things, about each other." I continued. I didn't feel a need to elaborate on what those things were. "We realized that there were… are… some feelings there."

A strange mixture of emotions crossed Ken's face: anger, frustration, concern, fear. He looked up at the ceiling, as if it held all of the answers. Perhaps he found what he sought, for he took a deep breath, and turned to face me again.

"I was afraid of that." he said quietly. "Jun and I… we had an understanding, between us."

"I can't answer for her, Ken," I replied with a deceptive calm, "but I'd say that the understanding was entirely on _your_ part. She may be willing to follow your orders without question when she's on duty, but off-duty, she's not willing to play second fiddle."

"So, she's using you." Ken accused. "She's using you to make me jealous."

I was instantly filled with rage. And yet… my anger was _not_ because I was afraid Ken was right. Somehow, I felt confident that Jun's feelings were genuine, and that she would not play games with me.

Rather, my fury was directed at Ken: at his arrogance in making such a statement, and what it said about his opinion of Jun, I saw the smug look on his face as he witnessed my reaction, and I lost it.

My fist swung through the air, connecting with the Eagle's face. At the last possible moment, my mind screamed at me to stop, and I pulled back enough to barely prevent myself from breaking his jaw. Still, the impact sent Ken sprawling to the floor, and I found myself filled with satisfaction.

Instantly, the Eagle leaped up and assumed a fighting stance. We glared at each other, our anger filling the room until it seemed ready to explode with rage.

And then, unexpectedly, Ken backed off. He dropped his arms, then slowly reached up to rub his jaw, wincing slightly as he did so.

"I guess I deserved that." he muttered to himself.

Amazingly, I felt no self-doubt at his words, just a quiet confidence that the Eagle was wrong. I could tell that Ken sensed this, and saw the fear and confusion on his face at my reaction. It was not what he had expected.

"You're lucky Jun's not awake right now." I informed him, "Because she would have been the one who belted you for saying that. She doesn't play games. If anything, she's always been straightforward and honest about how she feels."

Ken appeared deflated, as if the anger that had filled him up had suddenly dissipated, to be replaced by something entirely different.

"That's…. that's what I'm afraid of." he said, so quietly I almost didn't hear him. "I'd like to think that she still…"

He didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to. I knew what he was thinking.

"You had better not…" Ken said, after a long moment of silence.

I raised a questioning eyebrow at the Eagle, waiting quietly for him to finish.

"You had better not take advantage of her." he threatened. "Jun's worth a hell of a lot more than that."

I sighed. This spoke volumes about how little Ken knew me. I hadn't been a 'player' of any kind for years, and certainly didn't intend to start up again now.

But it wasn't the Eagle's fault. I had kept myself distant. We weren't as close as we used to be, and he didn't know what was going on in my mind.

Only Jun knew that.

"Don't you think I realize that?" I replied in frustration. "I would never do anything like that."

Ken appeared thoughtful, seeming to consider my words, and eventually accept my statement.

He held out his hand, and I took it firmly in my grasp.

"We may have a lot of issues between us, but I trust you, Joe." he said, finally. "Don't break that trust."

"I won't." I promised.

88888

After Ken had left, I sat down heavily in a chair. Jun appeared to be calm and peaceful; completely unaware of the tensions that had just exploded right in front of her.

I sighed, staring at her beautiful face. Asleep, she appeared so innocent, and yet, I knew that many times in her life, she had had her emotions ripped out of her body and trampled on, just as I had. It was difficult to reconcile this gentle, fragile-looking girl, with the fiery, battle-ready Swan.

And yet, I loved them both.

Slowly, I reached out, brushing Jun's hair from her forehead, allowing my fingers to thread themselves through the silken strands, before drawing them out to softly caress her face.

As my hand reached her cheek, her face turned slightly, nestling itself into my gloved palm.

"Joe…" she sighed, her eyes still closed.

"I'm here, Jun." I whispered, wondering if she could hear me.

"Mmmmmm….."

It was a contented sound, and I found myself growing warm, realizing that she associated it with me.

"Stay with me, Joe." she murmured.

"Always."

What the hell had made me say that? I couldn't make that promise. I knew, better than anyone, the sacrifice I had to make.

And yet, when I had instinctively responded to Jun's request, I had meant it, with all of my heart.

Still, I felt the need to qualify my answer.

"As long as I have breath."

Jun slowly opened one eye, regarding me sleepily.

"That will be for a long time; if I have anything to say about it." she said.

I chose not to dispute her words. She had been through a lot today, and didn't need any more stress.

"This is the second time today…" Jun smiled. "I think I like it."

"Like what?" I asked, confused. My mind was still agonizing over Jun's insistence that I would not have to fulfill my ultimate purpose, with regards to Leader X.

"Waking up to you." she replied. "I like having you there, when I open my eyes."

"And I like being here, for you." I answered, my face flushing ever so slightly.

"I want to do it all the time." she sighed, opening her other eye to look directly at me.

"I've got no problem with that." I grinned. "If only, between the two of us, we can manage to keep out of the Medical Facilities."

"That's a tall order." Jun laughed, "But I'm willing to do my part."

"I'll do whatever it takes." I said seriously.

"Even…"

"You know I can't promise that, Jun." I turned away. "I thought you understood: I have a purpose. There's a _reason_ I was made into… what I am."

"I know." she sighed. "And I don't blame you, Joe. I just wish…"

I didn't answer her. I knew what she was thinking.

"But I'm not going to give up hope." she insisted. "I know, that if there is a way, you will find it."

Despite my doubts, I felt a thin thread of hope at her words. Perhaps there _was_ a way. If there was, then being with Jun was certainly enough motivation for me to take it.

"I promise, Jun," I said, "I'll do my best to stay with you, as long as I can."

"That's all I can ask." she sighed, moving closer to me.

I put my arms around the Swan, feeling her chest rise and fall with her soft breathing. The longer I held her, the more certain I became.

I _would_ find a way to be with her.

Somehow.


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

I lay between crisp, cool sheets, a gentle breeze blowing through the room. I lifted my head to look at the sunshine outside, then dropped it back to my pillow, tired by even that low level of effort.

I was exhausted: drained of energy, with no way to recharge.

But I was alive.

It still amazed me that I had survived our final encounter with Leader X, when I had fully expected to die in my suicide attack. As I had thrown myself at Leader X's weak spot, as pointed out by Gel Sadra, an image of Jun had flashed through my mind. It was accompanied by a pang of regret: that we would not be together, after all. I had felt the bomb in my chest sense X's presence, and activate, and then... an explosion.

But I had not been the cause of that explosion. Instead, it had been triggered by Ken's Cutting Saucer, as it had struck at X's most vulnerable point.

It had been my feather shuriken that had stopped the Black Hole device, saving Ken, and the others. And now, the Eagle had repaid me, by saving my life.

Complete and utter exhaustion, was a small price to pay.

After Galactor had destroyed the last remaining charging station on Island Ebiza, my cyborg body had been unable to recapture its former levels of energy. Sure, I had been able to temporarily charge up at a power station, before my final confrontation with Leader X, but that had been a stopgap measure: not something that I could rely on, indefinitely.

I needed a more permanent solution. Now that Dr. Pandora was dead, it was up to Hakase to find one. But if anyone could, I knew it would be he.

The door swung open, and a smiling Jun entered.

"Hello, Handsome." she flirted, placing a soft kiss on my forehead.

"Hi." I replied, "It's great to see you, Jun."

Her visit was hardly unexpected. Jun had been visiting me at least twice a day, since I had been confined to this bed in the ISO Medical Facility. I looked forward to her visits, as they were the bright spot in my otherwise monotonous days.

"You're looking well–rested, as usual." she grinned.

"Ah, yes." I joked, "I managed to stick my fingers into an electrical outlet, and it gave me just enough energy to run ten laps around the room. After that, I was completely invigorated."

"I'm glad to see that you haven't lost your sense of humor, Joe." Jun said.

"Your visits are the only thing keeping me sane." I replied.

"It's hardly a chore." Jun winked. "I love talking with you… getting to know you… just _being_ with you, Joe."

"That's good." I laughed, "I was worried, that I was starting to bore you."

"You could never bore me, Joe." Jun said, sincerely.

"Even though _all_ there is between us, is conversation?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow. Unfortunately, between Gel Sadra's last couple of mecha attacks, the destruction of G-Town, and my constant exhaustion, Jun and I had yet to actually wake up with each other, as we had planned.

But we still intended to do that; as soon as Dr. Nambu could find a way to re-charge my cybernetic body.

"There's plenty of time for other… exploration." she promised.

"I'm looking forward to it." I drawled.

"So am I." she said coquettishly. "It should be quite the experience."

"It will." I promised her. "I'm very experienced."

Jun's laughter was like music to my ears. She lifted my hand, pressing it to her cheek.

"Whenever it happens, it will be wonderful." she said softly, before gently pressing her mouth to mine.

The fiery passion that filled me, when our lips touched, was nearly enough to re-charge me, all on its own. I knew, that once we had a chance to be together, in _every_ way, it would be that much sweeter, for all of our anticipation.

At that moment, I was certain that Hakase would find a way to restore my body. And there was nothing left to trigger the waiting death in my chest, allowing me to be with Jun, for a long time to come.

All of my burdens had been lifted, and for that, I was extremely grateful.


End file.
